Don't vote!
Oct. 30th, 2008 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kodalaiIf anyone hasn't seen this video yet, I recommend it: it's funny and cute, with touching moments (I didn't realize that NPH was out!)
JUST TRUST ME, HARRISON.
In the last 8 years I've encountered a lot of people who, for one reason or another, have chosen not to vote. Personally, I find this kind of mystefying. The people who say "it won't make a difference," I can get, even though they're wrong. But the people who claim they aren't voting as a protest against the system I get even less.
All I have to say is, consider this:
Last week a group of 10,000 people gathered together and protested against renewed offensives in Afghanistan. Of course, since they protested in the middle of the night, in a deserted park, wearing dark clothing, and without saying a word or making a noise, nobody ever knew, nobody ever cared, and certainly nobody made any effort to take their protest into account.
When you choose not to vote you are not casting a protest, because you are removing yourself from anyone who might hear you. You are not protest because you are effectively silenceing yourself by forfeiting all ability to protest. By removing yourself from the voting public, you have moved yourself into the group of Americans, including the homeless, the illiterate, the non-naturalized and the mentally ill, that no politician has ever bothered to try to court because they don't vote. You are taking yourself out of consideration.
And please, don't imagine that by doing so you are removing yourself from the manipulative game played by the two-party system. Don't forget that the historical record clearly shows that Republicans gain strength when voter turnout is low, and that Democrats grain influence when voter turnout is high. Don't forget, even for a minute, that the Republicans know this and will exert all of their efforts to make sure that people don't vote. Specifically, to make sure that YOU don't vote. They have done so by means ranging from the direct (intimidation of poor and minority voters) to the indirect (distributing false information about voting times and practices in Democratic neighborhoods) And let's not forget the insidious -- propagating and encouraging the time-old tired meme that "one vote doesn't matter."
One vote does matter. And one not-vote matters, too; just not in the way people seem to think. Don't imagine that you are escaping the game by refusing to play; you're simply letting yourself GET played.
JUST TRUST ME, HARRISON.
In the last 8 years I've encountered a lot of people who, for one reason or another, have chosen not to vote. Personally, I find this kind of mystefying. The people who say "it won't make a difference," I can get, even though they're wrong. But the people who claim they aren't voting as a protest against the system I get even less.
All I have to say is, consider this:
Last week a group of 10,000 people gathered together and protested against renewed offensives in Afghanistan. Of course, since they protested in the middle of the night, in a deserted park, wearing dark clothing, and without saying a word or making a noise, nobody ever knew, nobody ever cared, and certainly nobody made any effort to take their protest into account.
When you choose not to vote you are not casting a protest, because you are removing yourself from anyone who might hear you. You are not protest because you are effectively silenceing yourself by forfeiting all ability to protest. By removing yourself from the voting public, you have moved yourself into the group of Americans, including the homeless, the illiterate, the non-naturalized and the mentally ill, that no politician has ever bothered to try to court because they don't vote. You are taking yourself out of consideration.
And please, don't imagine that by doing so you are removing yourself from the manipulative game played by the two-party system. Don't forget that the historical record clearly shows that Republicans gain strength when voter turnout is low, and that Democrats grain influence when voter turnout is high. Don't forget, even for a minute, that the Republicans know this and will exert all of their efforts to make sure that people don't vote. Specifically, to make sure that YOU don't vote. They have done so by means ranging from the direct (intimidation of poor and minority voters) to the indirect (distributing false information about voting times and practices in Democratic neighborhoods) And let's not forget the insidious -- propagating and encouraging the time-old tired meme that "one vote doesn't matter."
One vote does matter. And one not-vote matters, too; just not in the way people seem to think. Don't imagine that you are escaping the game by refusing to play; you're simply letting yourself GET played.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 06:38 am (UTC):D
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 02:40 pm (UTC)And I'm definitely voting ;-) Cuz voting is sexy.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 05:16 pm (UTC)^____^
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 09:13 pm (UTC)