Am I the only one that chooses not to vote?

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jtb said:
Just because people are lazy doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage them to vote.
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I'm just pointing out that a lack of a dedicated voting holiday shouldn't be seen as a valid excuse to not vote. Of course, everyone who pays attention to what is going on should vote. You can only lead a horse to water...
 
John Dunbar said:
nope, which brings me back to the very first post i made in the thread quoting you: the man already won. at this point only a violent revolution will do.
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Yeah, like that violent revolution that busted up monopolies in the early 20th century.

Or those violent revolutions that led to Social Security in the 30s and Medicare in the 60s.

Only violent revolutions will do.
 
Screaming Meat said:
george-carlin-i-have-solved-this-political-dilemma-in-a-very-direct-way-i-dont-vote-on-election-day-i-stay-home-i-firmly-believe-that-if-you-vote-you-have-no-right-to-complain-now-some.jpg
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George Carlin is a legend and a national treasure

but his I-don't-vote routine is so illogical and wrongheaded it's depressing
 
I also wouldn't be surprised if there was a vested interest by Conservatives in keeping the voting turnout low.

This is a bit old now (2006), but it seems like legit research into the tendencies of people that don't vote, and it seems that liberal/democratic minded people are more likely to not be registered or to rarely vote than conservatives.

http://www.people-press.org/2006/10/18/who-votes-who-doesnt-and-why/

I just have to wonder what kind of a nation we would have if everyone who could vote did.



<EDIT: RE: George Carlin... Just because he is one of the smartest and funniest comedians ever, doesn't make his opinion on voting right.
 
njean777 said:
I wanted to vote today but missed the registration deadline (not going to happen again for president), but I would just end up writing in a socialist candidate or communist both of which were not running in my states governor position, so yeah it wouldn't have mattered. So in the end I don't think my vote would matter much. This capitalistic society isn't what I want to see anymore.
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A lot of counties let you register and then vote on election day if you go to the County Clerk's Office as long as you haven't voted already or signed up for an absentee ballot in another county.
 
Politicians bank on people not voting. Voter suppression only works if you are suppressing people who try to vote.

Think about that for a second.
 
Screaming Meat said:
george-carlin-i-have-solved-this-political-dilemma-in-a-very-direct-way-i-dont-vote-on-election-day-i-stay-home-i-firmly-believe-that-if-you-vote-you-have-no-right-to-complain-now-some.jpg
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All we can do is go off of what we have seen from any politician and believe that they're doing the right thing. I can't see what any politician would do in the future, but I have a good idea of what they might do based on what they stand for. How could I hope to know that someone would change their stance on a particular subject once they are elected?

Not doing anything about what's going on is accepting it in my opinion.
 
Malreyn said:
The big problem is that its not a "national holiday" so people have to choose between working and voting. You can argue "well people can do it before or after work" but some places you have to stand in line for hours and its not worth it.
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Do I have to give my employees time off for voting, jury duty, or military service?
The answer will differ depending on the state where you do business. Here are the basics.
Voting. Almost half of the states require employers to provide a few hours of paid leave to allow their employees to vote. Generally, paid leave is required only if the employee would have insufficient time to vote without taking time off.
Even if you live in a state that does not require paid leave for voting, you must not punish any employee for taking time off to cast a ballot. Almost every state prohibits employers from firing or disciplining an employee for taking leave to vote.
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Its a crime. Your employer can face fines and jail time if they don't give you time to vote.
 
I mean, they are the same on a macro level and I can understand being disillusioned with that (it's the same where I live).

qKBpiCj.jpg

(I don't know how accurate this is, but you get the point)

But on a micro level there's a real difference, that can make a significant change to people's lives. Think Obamacare, gay marriage, economics to an extent. I wouldn't feel comfortable fucking people over like that, and it's not like by not voting you're doing anything productive. If it was accompanied by protest or lobbying work then yeah sure, but otherwise you're just laying down and being fucked.

BertramCooper said:
Yeah, like that violent revolution that busted up monopolies in the early 20th century.

Or those violent revolutions that led to Social Security in the 30s and Medicare in the 60s.

Only violent revolutions will do.
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The threat of violent revolution (and of communism) existed in all those scenarios, and is what's important.
 
If you care about the Supreme Court and it's potential impact, then you should vote (at least in the Presidential election). If you think politics will have no affect on you, then I don't know what to tell you.
 
Young people being lazy and disinterested in politics is the reason why older conservative voters have such a strong leg to stand on. As a matter of fact, politicians bank on you being too lazy and naive to vote. Young, disenfranchised people who avoid voting love complaining about the government yet are ambivalent when it comes to actually getting out and voting.

Slacktivism isn't going to fix the world.
 
I am apathetic to those who don't choose to vote.

It's one of the great privileges of a democracy and failing to exercise it or quote George Carlin as the justification makes me lose respect for that person.

Convicts lose the right to vote. So the fact that a person "Chooses" not to vote is IMO a load of shit when the same people who advocate for better rights for minorities are also the same people who don't vote for candidates who represent those rights. Convicts (who the stats show are predominant black and hispanic, as many people like to point out) are disenfranchised from voting in the US. So, even when they get out of prison, they are not allowed to express a fundamental right to create change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement

The United States is among the strictest nations in the world when it comes to denying the vote to those who have felony convictions on their record.[5]

In the US, the constitution implicitly permits the states to adopt rules about disenfranchisement "for participation in rebellion, or other crime", by the fourteenth amendment, section 2. It is up to the states to decide which crimes could be ground for disenfranchisement, and they are not formally bound to restrict this to felonies; however, in most cases, they do.

In 2008 over 5.3 million people in the United States were denied the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement.[6] Approximately thirteen percent of the United States' population is African American, yet African Americans make up thirty-eight percent of the American prison population.[2] Slightly more than fifteen percent of the United States population is Hispanic, while twenty percent of the prison population is Hispanic.[2] People who are felons are disproportionately people of color.[1][2] In the United States, felony disenfranchisement laws disproportionately affect communities of color as "they are disproportionately arrested, convicted, and subsequently denied the right to vote".[1] Research has shown that as much as 10 percent of the population in some minority communities in the USA is unable to vote, as a result of felon disenfranchisement.[1]

In the national elections 2012, all the various state felony disenfranchisement laws added together blocked an estimated record number of 5.85 million Americans from voting, up from 1.2 million in 1976. This comprised 2.5% of the potential voters in general; and included 8% of the potential African American voters. The state with the highest amount of disenfranchised people was Florida, with 1.5 million disenfranchised, including more than a fifth of potential African American voters.[5]

Felony disenfranchisement was a topic of debate during the 2012 Republican presidential primary. Rick Santorum argued for the restoration of voting rights for ex-offenders.[7] Santorum's position was attacked and distorted by Mitt Romney, who alleged that Santorum supported voting rights for offenders while incarcerated rather than Santorum's stated position of restoring voting rights only after the completion of sentence, probation and parole.[7][8] President Barack Obama supports voting rights for ex-offenders.[9]
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Aurongel said:
Young people being lazy and disinterested in politics is the reason why older conservative voters have such a strong leg to stand on. As a matter of fact, politicians bank on you being too lazy and naive to vote. Young, disenfranchised people who avoid voting love complaining about the government yet are ambivalent when it comes to actually getting out and voting.

Slacktivism isn't going to fix the world.
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I think a bigger problem is that these politicians do not speak to the younger crowd. I don't think there is disinterest, it is just the fact that when young people do vote they are not satisfied with the results. Didn't a large majority of young voters vote for Obama? Because I remember that happening and then after his first term people lost interest because it seemed like he was treading water.
 
Yeah I don't know how to balance out the lesser of two evils.

Probably should register, I didnt do it when I got my drivers license and I really didnt pay attention to politics in college.
 
BertramCooper said:
Yeah, like that violent revolution that busted up monopolies in the early 20th century.

Or those violent revolutions that led to Social Security in the 30s and Medicare in the 60s.

Only violent revolutions will do.
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oh wow, a dose of basic human decency every 20 or so years. what a great system we got going here. but any examples from the last 50?
 
njean777 said:
I think a bigger problem is that these politicians do not speak to the younger crowd. I don't think there is disinterest, it is just the fact that when young people do vote they are not satisfied with the results. Didn't a large majority of young voters vote for Obama? Because I remember that happening and then after his first term people lost interest because it seemed like he was treading water.
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no, young voters just don't understand the political process. change occurs slowly. it always does. the political process is designed to ensure and safeguard that. young idealists go out there expecting a single vote (for say... Obama) to fix everything; but it's not. unfortunately, people take that as a message that they shouldn't vote when what it really means is that you need to keep voting, consistently and often.
 
John Dunbar said:
oh wow, a dose of basic human decency every 20 or so years. what a great system we got going here. but any examples from the last 50?
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What the fuck. Civil Rights Act in the last 50 years if you want the big Elephant in the room.

You're completely ignorant to how government works and it appears you don't actually care to educate yourself.
 
John Dunbar said:
oh wow, a dose of basic human decency every 20 or so years. what a great system we got going here. but any examples from the last 50?
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Why would anyone give you examples? You've shown your ignorance by even asking for them (and yet you pretend to have any clue what you're talking about when it comes to voting). You've also shown that all you're interested in doing is downplaying any achievement that has resulted from the political process.

This kind of fake intellectual arrogance from people who think they have it figured out sure is annoying.
 
John Dunbar said:
oh wow, a dose of basic human decency every 20 or so years. what a great system we got going here. but any examples from the last 50?
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Really? Is the point of Government only to make sweeping, dramatic changes? Is that the only thing you mark as progress?

People are gradually gaining more and more access to healthcare. That's a government thing. People are gradually gaining the right to marry whoever the hell they want. That's a gradual change in the government, driven by the people appointed by those we elect.

If you can't see the necessity in being involved in the small processes that lead to change in the government, for good or bad, then you need to look again.

I swear, people arguing against voting. It's the most asinine First-World-Problem bullshit lame ass excuse for adolescent stupidity I have seen on NeoGAF yet.
 
To equate both parties as being the same is considered a HUGE false equivalency. Both sides regularly take campaign contributions, yes--because honestly a politician wouldn't be able to compete without them--but only one side actively pushes to reform political campaign finance & lobbying. Just look at each party's policies and tell me they are the same. You're part of the problem. Your political knowledge is not above anyone else's except maybe somewhere between a potato and someone voting for a Tea Party candidate.
 
John Dunbar said:
oh wow, a dose of basic human decency every 20 or so years. what a great system we got going here. but any examples from the last 50?
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The decriminalization/legalization of some drugs will have a huge impact on prison populations and hopefully, the way we perceive and treat addiction. This has only begun, of course (speaking of pot in Washington and Colorado), but I hope its a trend that continues.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/war-on-drugs-prisons-infographic_n_4914884.html
 
Even if you feel this way about presidents (you shouldn't), your local politicians do tend to have an effect on how your state/city is run that is different based on which party they belong to. A hotbutton example: all the stupid anti-abortion laws that get passed then shut down by courts come from wacky state politicians. Your state's minimum wage laws are also determined by these people. The referendums and bond issues on midterm ballots help determine what your tax money goes towards. In my state (New Mexico), elected representatives determine how our water is used and how we negotiate with other states for water rights, which is a HUGE issue!

Midterms are really important elections...just look up whatever issues your state has, if you haven't already.
 
Nope. You are probably in the majority in fact. I also have never voted, but I am thinking I should probably change that.
 
Not American but the attitude of disdain against people who choose not to vote is something I've always hated and I say this as someone who's never missed an election.

Not voting is a conscious choice which is as valid as voting. The "don't complain if you didn't vote" idea is the most stupid shit ever.
 
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