The third evil: Not voting at all

[MisterBeale]

 

[Cecilie1200]

Absolutely! Throwing away your voice because you're in a snit over the choices only gives the one you dislike most the chance to win. Only about 25% of eligible American voters actually decide who the president will be. So, every single vote counts.



Essay @ The third evil: Not voting at all

I don't actually know anyone who's planning on not voting (at least, not anyone who doesn't already make a habit of blowing off their civic responsibilities). I know a lot of people who plan to reject the two-party paradigm and its options of a shit sandwich versus a shit sandwich and order a la carte, so to speak.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Absolutely! Throwing away your voice because you're in a snit over the choices only gives the one you dislike most the chance to win. Only about 25% of eligible American voters actually decide who the president will be. So, every single vote counts.



Essay @ The third evil: Not voting at all

A valid point and a worthwhile reminder but for many of us there isn't a "less onerous" choice this year ... no "lesser of 2 evils" (even when one holds his nose).

Even if there were any viable way to decide which swamp was less toxic - and I doubt King Solomon himself would be able to come up with a good solution to THAT question - I love my country, and would never vote it an "evil" of any variety on purpose.

 

[whitehall]

I tend to agree that you can't complain about the state of the Union if you didn't vote. I submit, however, that the 3rd evil is in fact the democrat party which has skewed the education system so badly that today's college kids can't name a single Founding Father and don't have a clue about American history but they can put a condom on a cucumber. You could also consider the democrat party's desperate efforts to enable formerly incarcerated felons and even illegal aliens to vote. No surprise that the democrat party which thrives on ignorance and anger is at war with information and relies on an angry and uninformed base.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Unfortunately we have seen not only NOT voting being a boost to sometimes the worst candidate, but also anyone running as a 3rd party yet having had no chance to win resulting in votes being split and the worst choice winning. I can at least respect someone who votes for the candidate they truly believe in no matter what.

I have one vote. Casting it with some pie-eyed notion that I'm "strategizing" about who will win or lose is moronic. All I can do is what can be done on the level of a lone individual, which is to vote for a candidate I genuinely will be a good President. Not a "less bad than the other guy" President, a GOOD President. The person I vote for might not win, but we'll certainly never know if it's even possible for him to win in everyone's casting their vote with no thought or goal beyond "rooting for the winning team". Meanwhile, voting for a candidate who ultimately does not win is going to happen to close to half the people who vote (assuming there isn't a landslide) no matter what.

And if there were ever an election in which casting a "protest" vote might actually be noticed and have an impact on the future, this is it.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Absolutely! Throwing away your voice because you're in a snit over the choices only gives the one you dislike most the chance to win. Only about 25% of eligible American voters actually decide who the president will be. So, every single vote counts.



Essay @ The third evil: Not voting at all

having a choice of bad (hiLIARy) or worse (Drumpf) is not a choice shortbusknife

You're not wrong. It's like being asked to decide which is the better way to die: stabbing or gunshot. Either way, you're dead, so any "lesser evil" about it is meaningless.

 

[Cecilie1200]

You can't make a difference when the elites own both parties, the media, the corportacracy, when they own it all. You are fooling yourself if you think your vote makes a difference.

I beg to differ....Trump is the example. The people have pushed their choice down the throats of the Establishment for a change. People can make a difference.

Trump is only an example of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss". One need only look at how, in a matter of months, his cultists have become exactly the evil they claimed they were so "angry" about. They have, basically, morphed into the new establishment elite, who ignore the concerns and wishes of everyone who isn't them in favor of pursuing their own desires, bully people, and tell them to shut up and fall in line, because their way is the only viable choice. The only real difference is that they're a lot more openly nasty about it, and a whole lot less articulate.

 

[Cecilie1200]

When you don't vote for the lesser evil, the greater evil wins.

And either way, evil wins. Why not vote for . . . just off the top of my head here . . . someone who ISN'T EVIL?!

 

[Cecilie1200]

I don't mind when people choose not to vote. It just irritates me to no end when those same people try to open their mouths to bit@h, whine, and complain. Oh, NO - sorry, you forfeited that right when you sat your ass down on the sidelines and chose to do nothing.

Depends on how you look at it.

If it were up to me, every voter would have to take a test before voting to see if what kind of knowledge they have about issues and current policies. Nothing too hard, just simple questions like what party does the VP belong to? Who is the Speaker of the House? Were taxes increased during the current administration? What party is the majority in the Senate? Things like that.

I have friends and coworkers that know absolutely nothing about politics, but vote anyhow. They do so to be patriotic. I always say that if you don't know WTF you are even voting on, the most patriotic thing you can do is stay home on election day. Let the knowledgable people vote instead of you.

The problem with our voting is it's become a popularity contest. How do they dress? How do they speak? How hot is their wife? Nothing about issues or current problems.

That's how we ended up with DumBama. That's how we ended up with Trump.

The problem there is that so many think that voting is a right - a patriotic right that we all must exercize for the good of the nation.

That is a silly idea if you ask me. Voting is a responsibility and one that should be taken seriously and with weight or not taken on at all.

I don't really care if you disagree with me politically as long as you actually know what you are doing.

Dude, cribbing from my posts without even shout-out? How rude.

 

[Jack4jill]

When you don't vote for the lesser evil, the greater evil wins.

And either way, evil wins. Why not vote for . . . just off the top of my head here . . . someone who ISN'T EVIL?!

Because, they can't win.

That means, you get nothing.

 

[Cecilie1200]

When you don't vote for the lesser evil, the greater evil wins.

And either way, evil wins. Why not vote for . . . just off the top of my head here . . . someone who ISN'T EVIL?!

Because, they can't win.

That means, you get nothing.

As opposed to getting . . . what? Bragging rights? "Look at the evil asshole who's running the country, instead of that other evil asshole who isn't. I picked the winning asshole!" Yay for you.

 

[MisterBeale]

When you don't vote for the lesser evil, the greater evil wins.

And either way, evil wins. Why not vote for . . . just off the top of my head here . . . someone who ISN'T EVIL?!

Because, they can't win.

That means, you get nothing.

As opposed to getting . . . what? Bragging rights? "Look at the evil asshole who's running the country, instead of that other evil asshole who isn't. I picked the winning asshole!" Yay for you.

I SOO agree with that statement.

In fact, all of the war crimes, the illegal drone strikes, the illegal invasion of Libya, all the innocent children that have died, etc.

All of it, all that blood belongs on the hands of those who voted for the last President.


Likewise, for those who voted for W. and his neo-con agenda, when he led us into war, when he LIED, knowing full well there were no WMD in Iraq, and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, the chaos in the middle east is now on the hands of those voters.

It's all because they did not do the research and understand who these people were.

 

[MisterBeale]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

The truth is, if we keep going along with the idea of "voting for the lesser evil", then we have no right to complain that we're never offered any choice BUT evil. If we want good candidates, then at some point, we're going to have to demand them by actually VOTING for good candidates, even if it means knowing that the lemmings around us are only concerned with choosing the more popular cliff to jump off of.

 

[MisterBeale]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

The truth is, if we keep going along with the idea of "voting for the lesser evil", then we have no right to complain that we're never offered any choice BUT evil. If we want good candidates, then at some point, we're going to have to demand them by actually VOTING for good candidates, even if it means knowing that the lemmings around us are only concerned with choosing the more popular cliff to jump off of.

None are ever allowed though, that is the point.

You have to be realistic. If you believe that they are, then you don't really know how corrupt the system is, or how absolutely unenlightened the average American voter is. They really don't care that much. They are made to not care. They are made to care about a million other things. Panem et circenses.


If you have raised any children, you would know how the "public school" system indoctrinates all the children to think of our system as just a two party system. Kids today go through their lives for the first thirty years never dreaming of casting a vote for anything other than the two parties, this is planned.

By the time some of them wise up enough to maybe switch to third party, everyone knows that the establishment has conditioned so many of the young to do their duty and vote one way or another. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

And even among the third parties, most of these candidates can't even get on the ballot in every state. Even if they do, if they were to ever mount a serious challenge, it would probably be thrown into the house to be decided.

What do you think would happen then?

In order for a third party to be successful, it needs to start small, at the grass roots. In the city councils, at the state level, getting representative seats and Senatorial seats. This will never happen, again, for the reasons I listed. It happens here and there, but not in any big way of course. The big media cartel slanders or ignores all other parties. No one knows anything about other choices, ever. They don't take any choices seriously.

It all comes down to the grasp of the state sponsored education. The current bureaucracy has an entrenched interest that won't let go.


As long as the big media cartel meets with both parties at the CFR, both those parties will forever control America in our one party illusion.

 

[amrchaos]

I don't mind when people choose not to vote. It just irritates me to no end when those same people try to open their mouths to bit@h, whine, and complain. Oh, NO - sorry, you forfeited that right when you sat your ass down on the sidelines and chose to do nothing.

Why ? So what if someone didn't cast a meaningless vote for some 3rd or 4th party on a cold fall Tuesday that they worked all day and have to fight traffic home .

Are they exempt from paying taxes if they don't vote too?

I hear all types of bsbut the worst has to do with voting 3rd party.

Look, your vote is worthless if you do not vote for your best pick. If your pick is a 3rd party, then you should vote 3rd party.

This talk about throwing a vote or allowing the person you dislike most winning is desperate delusional bs by a person trapped in the two party game of "us versus them"

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

The truth is, if we keep going along with the idea of "voting for the lesser evil", then we have no right to complain that we're never offered any choice BUT evil. If we want good candidates, then at some point, we're going to have to demand them by actually VOTING for good candidates, even if it means knowing that the lemmings around us are only concerned with choosing the more popular cliff to jump off of.

What you are suggesting here is comparable to a game.

Let's say you run a marathon. The marathon has a planned path in which you must follow in order to win. But you don't like the route, so you create your own going through allies and cutting through back yards.

When you get to the finish line, you only think you won something, but because you didn't go by the rules of the game, you go home empty handed.

That's what voting in America has been about for a long time and continues today. Unless both parties piss everybody off at the same time, voting for a third party is just throwing your vote away. Sure, it may make you feel good, but you've accomplished nothing in the process.

Right now constituents in both parties are sending their leaders a message. It's not much, but it's a start, because if you really want to change our politics, the only place to do that is in the primaries.

As for decent candidates, you will never get them because of the media slander. Look at what they did to Romney going back to his high school years to bash the guy. Same thing with Bush's 20 year old DUI. Look at what they tried to do with Trump talking with women he dated 30 years ago for crying out loud. This is what the media does.

As long as we enjoy this kind of tabloid reporting and give them attention, you will never have a group of decent candidates. That's because these media clowns can make Pope John Paul look like a underhanded criminal if they wanted to.

 

[FA_Q2]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

The truth is, if we keep going along with the idea of "voting for the lesser evil", then we have no right to complain that we're never offered any choice BUT evil. If we want good candidates, then at some point, we're going to have to demand them by actually VOTING for good candidates, even if it means knowing that the lemmings around us are only concerned with choosing the more popular cliff to jump off of.

What you are suggesting here is comparable to a game.

Let's say you run a marathon. The marathon has a planned path in which you must follow in order to win. But you don't like the route, so you create your own going through allies and cutting through back yards.

When you get to the finish line, you only think you won something, but because you didn't go by the rules of the game, you go home empty handed.

That's what voting in America has been about for a long time and continues today. Unless both parties piss everybody off at the same time, voting for a third party is just throwing your vote away. Sure, it may make you feel good, but you've accomplished nothing in the process.

Right now constituents in both parties are sending their leaders a message. It's not much, but it's a start, because if you really want to change our politics, the only place to do that is in the primaries.

As for decent candidates, you will never get them because of the media slander. Look at what they did to Romney going back to his high school years to bash the guy. Same thing with Bush's 20 year old DUI. Look at what they tried to do with Trump talking with women he dated 30 years ago for crying out loud. This is what the media does.

As long as we enjoy this kind of tabloid reporting and give them attention, you will never have a group of decent candidates. That's because these media clowns can make Pope John Paul look like a underhanded criminal if they wanted to.

You have accomplished is lessening the power of the party that is not supporting your wishes but can. IOW, if they continue to lose because you do not vote for them they WILL change. If you continue to vote for them then the one thing that is guaranteed is that they will not change - they are winning.

That is what your continued support for them garners - assured continuance of the policies that you may not support in fear of the other policies that you also do not support.

 

[FA_Q2]

I don't mind when people choose not to vote. It just irritates me to no end when those same people try to open their mouths to bit@h, whine, and complain. Oh, NO - sorry, you forfeited that right when you sat your ass down on the sidelines and chose to do nothing.

Depends on how you look at it.

If it were up to me, every voter would have to take a test before voting to see if what kind of knowledge they have about issues and current policies. Nothing too hard, just simple questions like what party does the VP belong to? Who is the Speaker of the House? Were taxes increased during the current administration? What party is the majority in the Senate? Things like that.

I have friends and coworkers that know absolutely nothing about politics, but vote anyhow. They do so to be patriotic. I always say that if you don't know WTF you are even voting on, the most patriotic thing you can do is stay home on election day. Let the knowledgable people vote instead of you.

The problem with our voting is it's become a popularity contest. How do they dress? How do they speak? How hot is their wife? Nothing about issues or current problems.

That's how we ended up with DumBama. That's how we ended up with Trump.

The problem there is that so many think that voting is a right - a patriotic right that we all must exercize for the good of the nation.

That is a silly idea if you ask me. Voting is a responsibility and one that should be taken seriously and with weight or not taken on at all.

I don't really care if you disagree with me politically as long as you actually know what you are doing.

Dude, cribbing from my posts without even shout-out? How rude.

Great minds and all

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Screw bragging rights, they are the ones that possess the guilt and blame.

The truth is, if we keep going along with the idea of "voting for the lesser evil", then we have no right to complain that we're never offered any choice BUT evil. If we want good candidates, then at some point, we're going to have to demand them by actually VOTING for good candidates, even if it means knowing that the lemmings around us are only concerned with choosing the more popular cliff to jump off of.

What you are suggesting here is comparable to a game.

Let's say you run a marathon. The marathon has a planned path in which you must follow in order to win. But you don't like the route, so you create your own going through allies and cutting through back yards.

When you get to the finish line, you only think you won something, but because you didn't go by the rules of the game, you go home empty handed.

That's what voting in America has been about for a long time and continues today. Unless both parties piss everybody off at the same time, voting for a third party is just throwing your vote away. Sure, it may make you feel good, but you've accomplished nothing in the process.

Right now constituents in both parties are sending their leaders a message. It's not much, but it's a start, because if you really want to change our politics, the only place to do that is in the primaries.

As for decent candidates, you will never get them because of the media slander. Look at what they did to Romney going back to his high school years to bash the guy. Same thing with Bush's 20 year old DUI. Look at what they tried to do with Trump talking with women he dated 30 years ago for crying out loud. This is what the media does.

As long as we enjoy this kind of tabloid reporting and give them attention, you will never have a group of decent candidates. That's because these media clowns can make Pope John Paul look like a underhanded criminal if they wanted to.

You have accomplished is lessening the power of the party that is not supporting your wishes but can. IOW, if they continue to lose because you do not vote for them they WILL change. If you continue to vote for them then the one thing that is guaranteed is that they will not change - they are winning.

That is what your continued support for them garners - assured continuance of the policies that you may not support in fear of the other policies that you also do not support.

Not at all.

What people fail to realize is that not every Democrat believes in the same thing as other Democrats. Same holds true for Republicans.

This is why I always say the most important election is the primaries, because the primaries tells the party where their constituents are at.

At DumBama's first run, we ran McCain, a clear RINO. Conservatives stayed home. Did the RNC change or learn anything? No. Then we ran Romney, another RINO. Once again we lost. Did the RNC learn anything?

This strategy of "teaching the party a lesson" simply doesn't work. What would work is if we all stuck together against the liberal destruction machine no matter who ends up the nominee. That's what would really scare the hell out of the Democrats.

But as long as our factions have this attitude of "I'm taking my ball and going home" is simply music to the ears of the Democrats. They want us fighting; they want us hitting each other over the heads; they want us to vow to vote in an opponent, a third party, not at all. They love it!

I didn't vote for McCain, I voted against Obama. I didn't vote for Romney, I voted against Obama. I'm not going to vote for Trump, I'm voting to keep Hillary out of the White House.