[Sca-cooks] vegetarian

[Siegfried Heydrich]

    Well, given that the Dems did an utterly miserable job at mobilizing
their voter base and got creamed as a result, I'd think that the value of
the voter is quite obvious. If you believe in something, you need to speak
up. If everyone takes the view that 'my voice doesn't count', you surrender
to the ones who disagree, and can get their people to the polls. Fanatics
are really good at mobilizing their people to vote . . . if your apathy
allows them into power, don't look surprised when you find life getting
difficult.
    People not voting is not a root cause, it's a symptom of diminished
faith in the system. Voting does make a difference in the end. But the end
is always in the future, and if you abdicate your responsibility in speaking
to the future, the future may not be what you think.
    If "Certainly it has not affected who is in power, or the policy
allegedly enacted in my name.", ask yourself how many others who had
differing opinions regarding those in power, or those policies, took the
same view? If they had spoken up, rather than moping about going "aww, it
doesn't matter . . .", perhaps those in power would not be, or those
policies would be in the process of change as we speak.
    Voting makes you heard. Even if you're a voice alone in the wilderness,
it's heard. And that beats muttering alone in your beer any day.

    Sieggy

-----Original Message-----


>>>"Did you vote?  No?   Then don't come whining to me...."
>>
>>As it happened, this year I did vote. But the outcome would have been
>>the same if I hadn't. I don't see how taking an action that has
>>essentially no chance of changing the outcome gives me any more
>>justification to complain about the outcome than if I hadn't taken it.
>
>Ya know, I keep promising myself I'm not going to comment on this,
>but I will say that we've reached the point where it is probably
>actively deceitful and immoral to suggest that people not voting is
>the root of the problem, especially after we've proven that the
>popular vote can be made very quickly irrelevant. Yes, it would be
>nice if everyone eligible to vote, did, but it would also be nice if
>doing so made a difference in the end. I went out into the rain and
>voted, just as I always do. Is that going to grant my whining some
>kind of special status to the appointee in power? Certainly it has
>not affected who is in power, or the policy allegedly enacted in my
>name.
>
>Adamantius