- Beef Turret
- Jul 9, 2009
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by Lowtax
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No one has said any of this, but it really is amazing the lengths you people will go to try to justify your total apathy and lack of participation. Seeing as our society literally hands you the tools necessary to shape the political landscape of your city, state, and country, that our government and the political parties make it as convenient as possible to vote (through mail-in ballots, voter information guides, party endorsement mailers, etc.), and that our democratic process can only function when people actually go out and participate, the onus is kind of on you to provide a good reason as to why you refuse to vote. So far, no one's really provided an argument that doesn't boil down to " wahh I'm a big baby, the system doesn't perfectly cater to my beliefs so it must be broken, I refuse to participate in any way because my opinions alone are not the sole basis as to how candidates get elected." Just because you feel like you deserve more power and influence and your one vote grants you doesn't mean you should break down, cry about it, and totally disengage form the system.
Let me break it down for you:
Don't feel like your vote is important enough in a national election? Then vote locally. School board, water board, city council, etc. races are often won or lost by single digits of votes, and there is a very real possibility that your vote could be the tie-breaking vote, determining the outcome of the entire race. A single additional volunteer doing a single day's work could win a lot of these races.
Don't think local seats matter enough for you to bother voting? Well you're an idiot, because these local seats determine things like the quality of your drinking water, the cost of utilities in your area, your school district's curriculum, your city's ordinances, and your region's urban development. Local seats probably have a greater impact on your life than any Congressman or Senator ever will, and unlike national elections, third party candidates have a very good shot at winning local races.
Want to impact a regional or Congressional race, but afraid your efforts will be lost among the tens of thousands of voters? A single person can have a much greater impact than you might think. Many of these elections come down to the wire, and even non-swing states have their toss-up elections. California, for example, just lost several Congressional elections to the Republicans by a few hundred votes each, possibly even less than that once provisional ballots are finally counted. That's nothing. A half-dozen volunteers helping out with a GOTV effort, or maybe a dozen more people showing up to help out on election day could have won those races for the Democrats. If you really cared about your special snowflake ideology you'd grab a few friends and help out.
Think that there's no point in volunteering because those mean old special interests are just going to buy the election? Well you're wrong as hell, because manpower is far more important to a campaign than money. Our current campaign laws make third-party expenditures very inefficient, and sometimes even counter-productive to the candidate they're supposed to help. And while the amount of outside money that gets poured into some of these races is staggering, people don't go out and vote because some SuperPAC spent a lot of money on a TV ad. They go and vote because someone came to their door, registered them to vote, reminded them it was election day, informed them of the candidates, or showed them where their polling place was. You can get outspent 2:1 or even 3:1 and still win your race, so long as you've got a good volunteer force and community backing.
Live in a solidly blue area and don't feel your vote matters in the general election? Then fight like hell in the primaries for the guy that best represents you, and make sure he gets elected over the other guy. You can get more progressive officials into office, and if the Dems notice a national trend of more progressive candidates getting elected, they will move the party platform in that direction.
Feel like the Dems are just as bad as Reps in terms of being in bed with big business? Then loving go out and vote already. Liberal apathy is such a major issue, and Democratic voter turn out rates are so low, that the Democrats have to rely on the funding, resources, and support of big business just to make up the difference. Republicans are constantly winning elections that they shouldn't because fairweather liberals refuse to go out and do anything, and the Democrats are driven to become more and more reliant on outside money as a result.
Does the guy you support not have a very good chance of winning? Well fight like hell for him anyways, because it sends a message. That's exactly what Neel Kashkari just did in the California gubernatorial race. Everyone knew he was going to lose the race from the start: only 28% of California's voters are registered Republican, and some pollsters were predicting his percentage of the vote would be in the teens. Despite lacking the backing of the national and even Californian Republican parties, and having only a shoestring budget to run on, Kashkari managed to earn more votes, and a larger percentage of the vote, than the previous Republican candidate, Meg Whitman, despite Whitman (a literal billionaire CEO) running one of the most expensive campaigns in history back in 2010. This, and all the California Congressional seats that flipped red this year, have ensured that the Republicans will be pouring far more resources into the next election cycle. The Republicans were just about to give up on California and let the Dems totally have it, but apathetic voters let the Republicans get a foothold, and we could see California once again become a battleground state because of it.
Think that withholding your vote will teach the Democratic party to be more progressive? It won't. All it will do is teach them not to stick their necks out on issues like healthcare, climate change, gay rights, etc. For every left-wing voter who refuses to vote, either out of protest or out of apathy, the Democratic party has to move to the right to try to capture moderate and center-right voters to make up the difference and stay competitive. If you refuse to vote, the DNC isn't going to send someone out to your house to beg you to come back to the party; they're going to ignore you, and move on, and cater to the interests of people who actually vote. Letting the Republicans take control of everything doesn't mean that the Democrats will have a better showing in 2016, 2018, or 2020. It just means that blacks, gays, women, etc. will have to live the next six years of their lives in fear of the Republican majority.
There's a million different ways this kind of stuff can play out, but in none of them will refusing to participate better you in any way.
Wow, these sure are some good examples of American politicians who should have been restrained by term limits. 
Nah.
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Nov 7, 2014 12:15
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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May 26, 2024 04:30
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- City of Tampa
- May 6, 2007
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by zen death robot
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the only politician im even semi-hype about is elizabeth warren and until she runs for pres, its really hard to get psyched about voting in chicago. oh wow cool so every side is completely poo poo fuckers who wont get anything done that doesnt benefit themselves? oh awesome. its been like that for a century now? sweet, democracy works so well.
If Warren even seriously thinks about running she'll be taken out by the media ala Dean in 2004, or even worse. Nothing will stop Hillary and the Wall Street machine.
I'll be surprised if we are even allowed to have a primary; the Democratic Party here in Florida squashed the last two primaries in my local House race so they could install the party establishment's preferred conservative "Democrats" without any input from pesky Democratic voters (causing us to lose the general election each time).
Wall Street Uber Alles.
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Nov 7, 2014 13:11
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- ArbitraryC
- Jan 28, 2009
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Pick a number, any number
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Pillbug
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Here's my long list of things people can do that won't actually change the direction of our country at all, but will allow me to feel smug about it.
About the only valid point you had in that massive wall of text is that local stuff is more important and easier to influence than people give it credit and you should participate in it when possible or realistic (ie at least vote, volunteer maybe if you're an enthusiast).
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Nov 7, 2014 22:35
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Nov 7, 2014 12:15
