A case for not voting
By voting you are making a statement. It may not be the statement you want to make. It is not exercising a constitutional right nor is it an expression of your freedom in a democracy. That's what you are supposed to believe.
If nothing else has been made clear by this year's fiasco it is that the system will only allow you to choose between the candidates that are preselected for you. This has always been the case but it is stark nakedly obvious now.
Thus the statement you make when you vote is that you are willing to legitimize a system that is basically a fraud. You are willing to keep the process as it is and to pretend that you are exercising a right and making a choice.
More and more people have stopped doing this. We can only guess at their reasons but at least some of them must have seen the system for what it is and said "no thanks", I am not fooled.
The theater that accompanies this years "election" is at an all time low. The MSM portray the "candidates" as if they are actually offering something to the voters. Their owners need the people to keep being distracted from their oligarchy and its almost total oppressiveness.
It is hard to put to words the immense distaste I have for what is being done everywhere during this scam. It is also hard to understand what people are thinking as they participate in the farce.
On the other hand I have to admire the way this system has evolved to the total mind control agent it is. I wish I could believe human design has made it happen, but as a systems scientist, I know better.
Since the founding fathers set it into motion, it has been something that destroys democracy in the name of democracy and pulls this off very well. Each step of the way it has allowed greed, money and power to grab more and more while convincing the people that they are free and are exercising choice.
There is now little left to take. It is all in the hands of a few and there is nothing that can be done to change that. Meanwhile the many distractions that have been so useful in manipulating the people have also fallen into the pattern.
Agriculture, medicine, energy, media and so much more all have become the playthings of the rich and powerful and there is a game like quality to their management.
The formula is a simple one. Never recognize the connections. Always break the situation down into issues and then deal with them in the most divisive ways possible. Reductionist philosophy is the cornerstone to the way human thought has evolved and it will keep us in this situation until we make our civilization fail and eventually become extinct.
You see there is only the system. All these other things are what make the system what it is. They are all connected and they all work together to make sure the system is stable. As we have seen once again any potential threat to the system's stability is eliminated or incorporated as a new agent to help stabilize the system.
The reductionist mentality has to see this as conspiracy. It has to deal with it in terms of simple cause and effect resulting from the action of human agents. This false analysis itself is part of how the system's stability is ensured.
So go to the polls again if you wish. Your only real alternative is to try to overcome the way your mind has been programmed. That is very hard. It is also dangerous. If you succeed to any extent, you can not go back. Once you have a sense for what the system is and how it functions you can not go back.
Comments
I don't think not voting really sends them a message.
The fewer people who vote, the easier is it for them to steal the election. The only fear you have when voting third party is that they'll change your vote, but the reality is they'll do what they need to get their desired result regardless of whether we vote or not (or they'll try anyways). However, the more disaffected people who vote third party, the harder they'll have to work to keep them under 5%. The strongest message we can send is trying to get third parties to hit 5% to get extra benefits (well, the strongest is burning it all down, but the strongest within our current political paradigm is third parties).
Couldn't agree more.
I'd like to see it. We are all burning already.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
who said it sends a message?
not voting simply is a refusal to play the game....if you think it is a valid process by all means vote....you clearly disagree with everything I wrote
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
I don't think it's always a valid process.
It's very, very often not (although it probably gets better the further down ticket you go, but then you are dealing with a whole different set of issues like lack of name recognition).
But by not voting, you are making it easier for them to make the whole process invalid. You are also giving up the small voice they allow us in the times when it is valid. Disgruntled people not voting is definitely their preference.
No voting means that literally the only way to get around corrupt establishments is to literally tear it all down.
Suicide is also refusing to play the game
it only gets one so far.
I do not see withholding one's vote as an agent of change.
We are truly cornered this year, but I am not convinced that not voting does ANYTHING positive. I'm not yet sure what to do instead, but as long as I am alive, I believe I will exercise my franchise.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Couldn't agree more! Hillary
Couldn't agree more! Hillary and the other Republicans all count on low voter participation in order to 'win' by cheating.
But voting for the Greens at the very least helps build the remaining non-corporate Party working toward a sustainable society and future and if enough people do it, and cheating is somehow forestalled, the corporate/billionaire candidates are prevented from global corporate take-over and destruction of life on the planet, whether through Hillary/Trump/replacement corporate candidate nuking other countries and being nuked in return or somewhat more slowly, over the next several decades, through unlimited corporate/military pollution/destruction to profit the relative few.
And if cheating cannot be prevented, there is apparently a mechanism by which a cheated-in 'leader' rejected by the people can be denied recognition by the rest of the world.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I have never considered
those who don't vote as being a problem of any sorts.
Can you promise them that their vote counts? Nope.
Will their non-voting mean that somebody who shouldn't have won won't?
Again, a big fat nope.
I too am considering not voting for whoever is on the ballot for president this year. It's a wasted cause, as what you think should be will likely never happen.
I was long ago considered a tree hugger because I didn't differentiate between humans and other life. Since my early years, a long time ago, I considered it obscene to believe that one life is more important than another.
Now we have degenerated into supporting a man or a woman who both think they are better than others.
Nope. I likely will not ever again turn the other cheek for those who could care less about anything but themselves.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Don, do you now believe more that we are screwed?
That the System is so pervasive (invasive) to block any argument? Or do we have to wake up, plurally, and somehow decide that this system is eating us? I would like more of your dark thoughts.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I think we have been being screwed for a long long time.
Here's what we wrote in our book:
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
I had this chat today
about to vote, and for whom.
We are liberals, we live and vote in Texas, a state that will go Trump.
Under vote, or vote for Stein?
Stein.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Gonna vote for Bernie
If he has registered as a write in for Texas. If he hasn't and I cannot, I am not sure if I will vote for Stein (meh). Will not vote for either megalomaniac pathological liar. Double meh for Gary. I fear if I leave President blank, it will get filled in for me.
Any other ideas on under voting?
if it would be filled in for you what makes you think
it won't be changed from Bernie?
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Don, thank you so very much for sharing this!
Your perspective is so encouraging to me --- so freeing --- and validates my ideas/feelings/beliefs/perspectives/position regarding the futility of my voting. When Bernie endorsed Hillary it was like someone threw cold water in my face, no, wait, it was more like someone punched me in my gut --- (my internal voices were saying: bang, POW, hello, wake the fuck up Lori this is a big fucking game orchestrated to keep us peasants busy while the rich fuckers take over the fucking world) --- I decided I aint never, ever votin again! Yeehaw baby! I aint playin the fuckin political fuckin game any more! It's so fuckin freein to say/write fuck
Fuck voting!
Election Fraud...
Might be TPTB's kryptonite. Look how powerfully the MSM endeavored to quash any talk about the overt frauds in 2000 and 2004. Once the general public believes (as is the case) that votes can be manipulated at will, and participating in the farce is pointless, then a major element of their power is disabled. Which is partly your point. Now it is obvious, and the various court cases stumbling forward may (hopefully) make it to the SCOTUS, to make it obvious to all. But it's unclear what happens once this last false-front of our Potemkin village democracy falls down. But falling it is… my, do we live in interesting times.
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
But they make up their own
But they make up their own votes anyway - and it's harder to make a faked election appear plausible when a large percentage of the population votes against both evils.
But it is handing one or the other evil an unfightable win when the conned vote for one evil or another and the un-conned don't vote at all, leaving no need for, and therefore indication of, cheating to litigate in seeking an escape from incoming disaster as a result of this.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
So, let me see if I have this right...
working within the system was fine when Bernie Sanders was running (I think I'm correct in remembering that you were an avid Sanders supporter, Don). But now that Bernie Sanders is out of it the system is no longer viable and we should just give up?
Please correct me if I am wrong in that assessment.
Johny, did you anticipate...
Election fraud to dominate the D primary? (I certainly would not have predicted that).
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
Not how blatant it was, no...
but is that reason to quit? Explain how we wrest power from these people by giving up.
Well, not voting, is not quiting or 'giving up'
It's just not voting.
As for wresting power from these people…
That's the $64T question, isn't it?
But clearly voting does nothing in that regard.
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
Not voting does not get counted as protest
it gets counted as indifference. The people who don't vote do not need to be courted.
I have long been a supporter of a no-quorum vote to say we disapprove of all choices, but we don't have that.
Of course this year we seem to be learning that at least one party has done it's best to disenfranchise voters and turn instead to creating votes out of code. Not sure how that makes not voting register as protest any more than it has.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
When
will the wresting begin?
In eight years when nothing has changed but the climate?
Too fucking late. We lost a hope in Sanders. I supported him but knew from the beginning that he would toss in with someone fond of incremental improvement after he was put in his place by the powers that rule our current government.
How I love the slogan "Giant Meteor 2016".
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
you must be joking
there is no way the oligarchy will give up power
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Bernie never had a chance....go back and read my systems
view on that....I have been saying these things for a long time. Almost a thousand blogs on Kos. It was important to support Bernie because he was revealing this. He did a pretty good job. If you don't see it now you never will.
And the just give up nonsense is a sign that you didn't get much from what I wrote.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Thank you...
for the judgement of my opinion. I stand unconvinced.
Don, I don't think it's necessary to be rude..
Especially with our host in his house, as it were.
It's not easy to swallow the message 'there's little to nothing that we can do.'
I got snarked at that myself for trying to make the same statement about our climate situation; and I wasn't being rude, just trying to make light of a very very very dire situation.
As is this. So, have some patience, please, and make your point, that you've made over and over, granted. I haven't read all your stuff, and probably everyone else hasn't either. So bear with us.
It's a teaching moment Don, A teacher's work is never done...
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
I was "rude"?
I am unaware of that. No intention to be rude. Whatever that means.
As far as teaching goes...that's a hard one. In order to teach a new paradigm you first have to obtain willingness to step out of the box. If the reader is adamant about keeping the old paradigm, teaching is not possible.
We wrote a book to establish the new paradigm. A few lines here can not replace that.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
I was "rude"?
I am unaware of that. No intention to be rude. Whatever that means.
As far as teaching goes...that's a hard one. In order to teach a new paradigm you first have to obtain willingness to step out of the box. If the reader is adamant about keeping the old paradigm, teaching is not possible.
We wrote a book to establish the new paradigm. A few lines here can not replace that.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Hi Don!
Rude (ruːd)
adj
1. insulting or uncivil; discourteous; impolite: he was rude about her hairstyle.
2. lacking refinement; coarse or uncouth
3. vulgar or obscene: a rude joke.
4. unexpected and unpleasant: a rude awakening to the facts of economic life.
5. roughly or crudely made: we made a rude shelter on the island.
6. rough or harsh in sound, appearance, or behaviour
7. humble or lowly
8. (prenominal) robust or sturdy: in rude health.
9. (prenominal) approximate or imprecise: a rude estimate.
[C14: via Old French from Latin rudis coarse, unformed]
ˈrudely adv
ˈrudeness, ˈrudery n
Example of "rude": "Don, you were talking like an ass."
See, it's a common every day woid, you hear it all the time. "Say the magic woid and you win 50 dollahs."
Not that it's your fault - you might have been just the trigger - but just a few minutes after this exchange, Johnny put this site up for sale.
But there's been an outpouring of support for Johnny and C99P… hopefully the end can be staved off.
But it is an object lesson in being especially polite to one's host. (Don, I'll bet you didn't even bring a host-gift.)
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
you make no sense to me
sorry I'm so dense
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Szaephod
pretty much just set the bar on what rude is. I don't think that was necessary.
I don't believe
Don is being rude.
He's speaking his mind as many do here. I can't tell if he's having a good or bad day but I know he's doing what is a given here.
Speaking his mind.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
It's just the way he is
I like it.
Hi Johnny --- seems like I remember you complimenting
us c99ers, not long after Bernie endorsed Hillary (if I'm remembering right) --- you wrote something to the effect "...non-partisan = freedom to change..." --- I haven't taken the time to research your comment.
.....So....now...after reading your comment to Don...I'm confused about you Mr. Johnny??? lol Maybe you're playing devil's advocate or somethin???
So what to do on the non-voting day?
Make the day of non-voting a BIG thing - with concerts and parades, or make the day of non-voting a non-thing? Or maybe the day of non-voting should be practical. Things like changing your old toilet seat to new toilet seat, or changing the cat's old litter box to a new litter box. Or both!
best, john
Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long
That'll be listed as voter
That'll be listed as voter apathy, as citizens not caring what's done to them or their country or the world.
The only protest that would be recognized would be by voting Green en masse, against everything the global corporatists and polluters stand for.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Thank you Mr. Mikulecky
For taking the time to share your thoughts on the challenges that face us and our electoral process. I will, however, be respectfully disagreeing with your conclusion, as I think our Four Fathers, who are probably rolling over in their graves right now, would as well.
To voluntarily disenfranchise myself would be akin to walking away from the table because I have a bad hand. Ok, a stinking, festering, rotting bad hand and the dealer is out to get me, but still, the game is long and as history has proved in the past, organically unpredictable.
I think we'd have a better chance at "freeing" ourselves from the system if enough of us decided to live off the grid. True, the likelihood of that is essentially a pipe dream, but at least in that rhetorical scenario, a reduction in TPTB profit margin would give some currency to the exercise of sending our collective Fuck You message.
Instead, I'll be "freeing" myself of the choices TPTB have offered me by voting Green Party with the hopes that my vote will be counted, or at the very least, stolen in the fear that if it were counted it would MEAN SOMETHING. In either case, my personal message to those Motherfuckers, in lieu of actual pitchforks, will have to suffice for now.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I will be voting Green as well.
This seems like a Bernie equivalent and any votes Green (if counted) will at least act as a vote against TPTB.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Voting Green makes a statement of principles
We will not win the election, but we will win hearts and minds. In my opinion, that is enough of a reason to campaign for the Green Party platform and our candidate for President: Jill Stein.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" is an old Chinese proverb, and it applies to our current situation.
Be a Friend of the Earth, cherish it and protect it.
I believe 1996 was 49% participation
less than half the registered voters....and nobody noticed. If voting goes down to 35% they'll say "gosh, that's low", not "something is really wrong here".
I mean, look at the ratings for Congress. 13% approve, 83% disapprove. That's astonishing. And yet it has zero effect.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx
So perhaps not voting will make us feel emotionally freer but it won't lead to any kind of change.
On the other hand, I favor dropping out so, sure. I'll probably vote for Jill Stein since Debs is dead, since Bobby is dead. I'm not 100% sure though. I might just skip it.
So now I understand more clearly
what Big Al has been trying to convey. My late husband was of this mind, too. I also have a dear, much younger than me, friend who would agree.
Thank you for the essay. It almost makes sense, somehow. I'm going to really consider this, do some hard thinking and soul searching.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Hi Raggedy Ann, you are always such a sweetheart!
You seem to always bring a soothing calm to the comment thread! Maybe you're our comment thread mojo master (I've got other adjectives/adverbs in mind, but I can't spell the fuckin words lol) oh well --- hope you understand what I'm having difficulty conveying
Thank you, Ajaradom.
It is always interesting to know how others perceive you. I appreciate your kind words. I hope you have a beautiful Saturday!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Well I certainly was not
the least bit surprised that "election fraud" occurred. But IMO it amounted to little more than than an entirely predictable institutional inertia. TPTB in any established system will always resist structural reform. What surprised me, was that Bernie was able to get as much popular support and traction as he did. I did not expect that, and it gave me some reason for hope. It's a hope I still retain, if for no other reason than that it makes me feel good to have it.
Regarding the utility or futility of voting, I'm somewhat inclined to agree with Don, though I've yet to definitively make up my mind about it.
native
I'm at the point
where I genuinely don't give a damn. I've considered voting Trump just to cancel one out for Hillary, but I might just as easily vote Green or not vote at all. There is the SCOTUS to consider, I'm told, but if a country lacks the rule of law, who needs a SCOTUS?
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
If you succeed to any extent,
Ok, Neo - you've taken the red pill and you've seen what the system is. Now what? Where are you going from here? You claim that you are not just "giving up", so what are you doing? How do you propose to change the system? Because if you are not going to do anything to change the system, then how is that not just giving up?
I understand your frustration, but I don't see anything constructive being proposed here.
The only way to change the system is to replace it by a better
one. Meanwhile you withdraw from participation in the old one. Not a difficult idea once you accept the new paradigm.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
My mind may be prgrammed
but I'm not. A lot of people globally see and know whats going down and yet none of these people have any idea how to take it down. Violent revolution Nah that won't work. Within the system that's a joke. I vote solely because the fuckers don't want you to vote they like a low turn out. Stupid reactionary useless but still I will vote. I disagree as systems are human constructs and the world or humanity are not static. These systems are puny in the face of nature and humanity. There has throughout history been 'systems' of assholes who want to rule the world and reek havoc and death. They can be brought down and have been over and over. The technology we have today may make it seem inevitable but it's not.
Our electoral process is a slap in the face of people. How strange to live in an Orwellian + Nazis revamped world. Still I have faith in nature, spirit, including people to stop this shit. All modern systems are artificial they are of the times and like all human constructs will get buried by the turning of the world and time. Always this dance goes on regardless of the system and both humans and the planet are resilient. Technology meh. The puny electoral politics of the current crop of rogues and psychos who rule the world will fall. Their systems are false and one way or another they like all the inevitable hoards of Empire and death before them will not prevail.
I like your essays but this one was nothing I can believe..You seem to think that think this electoral system is somehow relevant in the larger system the makes the universe go round. It isn't. It's a symptom of how and pathetic believing in this 'system'' is. Get real this is not reality it's what humans have had to face over and over throughout history. Systems my ass. Why would anyone base reality on the current madness we are living under? It will not hold it never does. Who gives a rats ass who wins this farce of an election. Bernie did his part alright and so what. I see clearly what his bit was and I don't like it one bi5t. I hope sincerely the people of the world take America down. They are out of hand and need to go. Our politics are a farce. USA USA. No system just pure fucking evil. Including Bernie.
Shahara, your basic gist is, in my humble opinion,
another version of Don's --- you guys are both pretty much sayin the same thing --- I'm just sayin lol
Hard to undersstand what your point is.
You can deny that there is a whole greater than the sum of its parts (system) but you will simply be in denial.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Still think we ought to vote though ....
I bought your book and look forward to reading it.
Just now read a bit .... Skipped to chapter 7 "What can be done?" pages 127 - 131 speak to me in particular. Could you write an essay here about those conclusions?
I am going to vote for Jill Stein because I can and it will make me feel good. I will be voting for things I believe in.
Are we fucked? Yes. Are the world's systems fucked? Yes. Is the environment fucked? Yes. Are the world's oceans going to become unnavigable because of superstorms in the near future? Yes. Might they steal my vote? Yes.
I'm going to vote because I will physically be able to do it. And .... I am going to keep working on figuring out how to grow enough food to live on in Texas. And keep trying to do my best for my family, friends, and neighbors. Hope and faith?
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I'm going to vote because I
(emphasis mine)
This.
I grew up in the age of "turn on, tune in, drop out". And I knew quite a few people who did just that - they dropped out. And where are they today? Nowhere. Now I see a lot of people on here choosing that same path. And it still leads to the same place - nowhere. Me? I'l keep on doing whatever I can to make a difference, no matter how small, no matter how useless it might appear, until the day I die. Because I know that, while I might not be able to change the world, I can keep working to help the circle that surrounds me.
And right now, at this moment, that means stopping Trump. Yes, Hillary is a corrupt warmonger. And the sun rose in the East today, and water is wet. She's not the first, and she won't be the last. But Trump is the first presidential candidate to call for his opponent to be assassinated. That, and every other call for violence that has come from him, are attacks on the very concept of civilized society. A vote for Trump is a vote for Mad Max.
You lost me at
Your premise that Trump called for the assassination of his opponent is fact that you have no filter to protect yourself from the media. Trump' comment was stupid, but the interpretation of it to mean anything more is simply encouraging, enabling, endorsing the propaganda machine. Watch Clinton in the interview where she laughingly states ( about Ghadaffi) "We came. We saw. He died". He was killed by a bayonet, purportedly up his ass. Not very fucking funny, and equally offensive as Trumps innuendo. Why were 10's of thousands of children from the Honduras showing up on our doorstep? Could it have anything to do with a Clinton led State Dept. decision to overthrow a duly elected leader, thus throwing the country into chaos, to be ruled by gangs in the vacuum? What kind of Civilization/ civilized society has come from our fuck-uppery of the entire Middle East? none, notta, zip!! Absolute chaos, and again a void filled by even more radical, less civilized brutality than existed before our rat fuckery of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Gaza, Egypt in the name of the ever present MIC. The MIC... Clinton's right hand men, and women, sell arms to both sides in these conflicts, then the excess, or outdated killing machines are being brought home, and sold to our fucking Law Enforcement Agencies to subdue the impending civil unrest right here at home. It is just a matter of time until we watch primetime TV showing warfare unleashed on the citizenry of this country as they rebel against the dissolution of a fair, free representative government...Of the People, By the People, For the People. That is what your vote for Hillary Clinton , the corporate, MIC, BIG OIL puppet will ensure for us. Dr Evil, and Mini Me unleashed on our streets....all to capture, and maintain absolute control, and ultimate profits for the multi-national corps that are polluting the entire Asian Continent because we have civilized regulations that get in the way of shareholder profits in the USA. TPP will become law, and the Multi-nationals will be able to sue us, the taxpayers, for getting in the way of profits, while we all choke to death, or gag on what little poisoned water is left.
How's that for dark thoughts???
I agree that voting, tho' seemingly fruitless, is a necessary action by all, in a democracy, but your vote for Clinton, out of fear based propaganda, largely inspired by the Clinton Machine, is worse than any media inspired threat against a civilized society. It instead, is a vote against civilized actions on behalf of all Americans if you vote out of fear.
I watched
Trump say that maybe second Amendment folks might have a solution.
Is that calling for assassination? In a gutless, cowardly way, yes. He was trying to be evasive, so rather than just saying it he referred to a group of people defined by the fact that they owned guns. You can split hairs if you want. I don't.
Now that word salad you tossed in after that is crap. You know what relevance what Hillary Clinton has done in the past has to the question? None whatsoever.
Whatever she has gotten away with does not effect what Trump has gotten away with. I'm not so stupid as to be incapable of making up my own mind. Its true the media is doing her work now, but he's still an asshole.
The worst trick ever played by the establishment is to make a system that creates two parties, and then make certain that both parties essentially represent the rich. Wait... I'm wrong. Recently, they pulled an even worse trick on us, and its hurting all of us.
The trick is this. They ran a traitor, Hillary Clinton, against an oligarch, after getting rid of the candidate who wasn't manifestly for the rich.
And now, they know we hate the traitor so much, that we will make excuses and defend the excesses of Donald Trump, and pretend that he is something he is not.
And if that situation is allowed to sustain itself, many progressives will be confused about what progresivism even really is. I think many of us have forgotten, because its been so long since we saw a progressive candidate. We don't know what they look like any more. And Donald Trump is warping our view of reality even further.
Thank you...yes I weill recap chapter 7 here for you
It will be difficult since it builds on the first six chapters.
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
Hmm..I remember FSC in 2008
Presidential candidates and assassination came up then, remember Bobby Kennedy? You never know...
I believe the candidacy of FSC is an attack on the very concept of civilized society. YMMV.
We are definitely
being programmed Don. I've felt that way for a long time. It isn't so much what the media mentions, as what they never cover any more. They never talk about the poor unless they are covering crime. They never talk about our real problems, and instead feed us with reality television about banal rich people.
I wouldn't say that voting is the problem, or a solution. But before we can accomplish anything, we have to wake everyone up. Until we do, we are pretty much screwed.
I'd rather send a hearty "F..k U" to the Oligarchs
by voting for a third party.
Non-participation changes nothing; Sends no message; Solves nothing. So what is the essayist's solution? Go live off grid? Or are we talking a "Heaven's Gate" scenario? Hahahaha.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
The Oligarchy don't give a fuck about you, me or the trees!
They are selfish, evil fuckers --- you can vote, not vote, tie yourself to a tree, pee on the tree --- do whatever fucking thing you want --- they don't give a flying fuck! They control everything! They'll just cut down the tree, maybe they'll kill you maybe not. But, you can be certain they will piss on you and probably take a shit on you, as well.
I've made a decision to live without getting involved in politics, again, for the remainder of my life. I refuse to play a game that sets me up to fail. Hell, I may be, without knowing it, without meaning to, still in the fucking matrix. But, at least I ain't voting --- I'm not voting, ever again!
David Koch likes lower voter turnout.
I don't think not voting does anything positive. I am not sure high turnout does anything positive anymore, either.
I guess I'm low on optimism this morning.
Don, your essays always make me think
and right now I am not sure what to think. But I have always said each person should vote his or her conscience and that vote should stand FOR something, not against. I would include the option of not voting in that equation which means you are standing for not participating in a corrupt process. So who am I to judge what is in another person's heart?
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy