Get out and vote!

[Guest]

My remark was that presidents and congresscritters come and go, but the mandarins go on for ever and ever; therefore, voting is merely a symbolic gesture, a sop to the poor dumb sheep who think "Your Vote Counts!"

Between the Legislative Branch and the political appointees in the other branches, there are maybe a thousand to two thousand people our vote MAY affect. What about all those motherfuckers in the SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE who are sitting in their huge empires, accountable to absolutely NO ONE? Yes, they have to answer to a political appointee, but they also know that all they have to do is wait two years or four years or six years, and it'll be another appointee. The mandarins and their minions number in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS. Your vote MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! NONE!!!

Sure, poor old Al lost out...boo-hoo-hoo. Tough toenails for him, but he's a professional politician, and that's counter to what the Founders intended.

The entrenched special interests, political action committees, lobbyists, etc. have all ensured that we can''t be heard via the ballot box, but one day we'll be heard via the cartridge box. That will be the day things, and not just names and faces, change inside the Beltway.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[billvon 2,991]

>but one day we'll be heard via the cartridge box. That will be the day
> things, and not just names and faces, change inside the Beltway.

And armed resistance will install a true government of the people, not just another faceless bureacracy to rouse the ire of intelligent citizens? How quickly will this new government fall prey to an electorate that believes that their vote makes NO DIFFERENCE, NONE?

[wmw999 2,445]

Every time I think about an armed militia taking over a corrupt government, I wonder just exactly how many people would agree with any given armed militia, or would we instead end up with many fighting factions.
Then I go vote, and try to make a difference where I can...
Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Guest]

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>but one day we'll be heard via the cartridge box. That will be the day
> things, and not just names and faces, change inside the Beltway.

And armed resistance will install a true government of the people, not just another faceless bureacracy to rouse the ire of intelligent citizens? How quickly will this new government fall prey to an electorate that believes that their vote makes NO DIFFERENCE, NONE?

I submit that this country was founded on a tax revolt, among other things. Once the people are fed up with being screwed by the mandarins, they'll charge, armed with pitchforks and torches, into the alphabet agencies, and drag those damned vampires into the sun.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Guest]

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Every time I think about an armed militia taking over a corrupt government, I wonder just exactly how many people would agree with any given armed militia, or would we instead end up with many fighting factions.
Then I go vote, and try to make a difference where I can...
Wendy W.

I would remind the reader that it was an armed militia that "fired the shot hear 'round the world".

The American Revolution was really the British Civil War, Part II, with the Colonials in the role of the Roundheads.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Guest]

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>but one day we'll be heard via the cartridge box. That will be the day
> things, and not just names and faces, change inside the Beltway.

And armed resistance will install a true government of the people, not just another faceless bureacracy to rouse the ire of intelligent citizens? How quickly will this new government fall prey to an electorate that believes that their vote makes NO DIFFERENCE, NONE?

At least such a government will belong to THE PEOPLE, and not to the army of mandarins that it currently does.

This could go on and on, but I've made clear my reasons for not voting...

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[PhillyKev 0]

Not the most timely example, but I don't feel like thinking too much right now. How do you think the Cuban Missle Crisis would have turned out if Nixon was pres at the time? There's an example of how a single elected official made a huge difference regardless of the other powers in government.

[billvon 2,991]

>How do you think the Cuban Missle Crisis would have turned out
>if Nixon was pres at the time?

Or Bush? Well, I suppose we could have allowed the missiles into Cuba, then bombed Iraq . . .

[bobsled92 0]

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none of these choices are acceptable leadership. if acceptable leadership cannot be determined by this method then the system needs to be changed

Seems to me that there are only two ways to change the system....overthrow it by force (not very likely) or to elect people who can change it from the inside out.

Well it's amazing and great to know that people DO care about this.
My Dad always told me "If you are not a part of the solution then, YOU ARE a part of the PROBLEM!"
and NOT voting makes you a part of the problem.
If you are not happy with your candidates, why not run yourself or support someone you believe in?

What are you accomplishing by NOT voting?

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