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September 06, 2003why i'll never vote againI give up. I remember the never-ending story of the 2000 Presidential election because I was at Lake Tahoe at the time. I was jet-lagged enough that I awoke at 2:00 in the morning and watched people counting chads on the news channels until sunrise, if I didn't go outside and take a walk in the snow first. The idea of Al Gore becoming President of the United States scared the shit out of me. I read Gore's book and I watched him at the Koyoto negotiations. The bastard was totally evangelical and crazed, in MY humble opinion. Plus, the idea of listening to that preachy, nasal, whining voice every day for the next four years was enough to make me contemplate jumping into Lake Tahoe and drowning myself. When Bush won, I was greatly relieved. I don't feel that way anymore. I don't quibble with a single thing he's done in the War On Terror. Al Gore would still be navel-gazing since 9/11 and trying to understand why Islamo-asshats hate us instead of kicking some ass. At least Bush took the fight to the enemy. And the tax cuts were a good idea. But the steel tariffs, the Farm Bill, the Education Bill, the increased government spending, the Homeland Security bullshit and the prescription drug benefits for "seniors" is just what LBJ would do if he were President today, and you see the legacy that long-eared bastard left us. Bush is spending more of my money, stealing more of my freedom and sticking more federal government fingers into my life than that whore-dog Clinton did. If that's what Republicans stand for today, count me out. I'm done. Finished. It really doesn't matter which party is in control anymore. We have hit the point that de Toqueville warned about. We vote ourselves largesse, whether we can pay for it or not, and we sacrifice freedom for the miniscule comfort we receive from the federal government. We want no risk, and everything guaranteed. We EXPECT THAT from Washington DC. If today, the Founding Fathers saw what has become of the country they made, they would be spinning like tops in their graves. Bush is nothing but Democrat Lite. And we'll never see a Ronald Reagan again. That's a sad fact, and it spells the doom of this country. My son will NEVER be as well-educated, as independent and as anti-government as I am. He is growing up in The System, where "social studies" replaced history, environmentalism is a cant, and he EXPECTS government to take care of him. He is being brainwashed, not educated. And that's not gonna change no matter who is in charge. Bush really let me down. But he DID show me that there's no hope, because government is going to grow, it's going to invade and it's going to intrude and it's NEVER going to stop, or even slow down. I suppose that I should thank him for that much. He convinced me not to give a shit anymore. I'll never vote again. It just doesn't matter.
Comments
unfortunate-but-true rule: if you don't vote, you can't bitch. Posted by: redsugar on September 6, 2003 08:50 AMVote and bitch. It STILL doesn't matter. Posted by: Acidman on September 6, 2003 08:53 AMThe Bush hope is that he's giving in on symbolic stuff and holding out on stuff that matters. I don't say he is, but he might be. Steel tarrifs are a bad idea but not a big deal in the big picture. It takes away an issue to demagogue, is the plus. Win on principle by winning in the long run. The evidence isn't in. Conservative values of the various kinds are losers to the demagogues that they produce in reaction, is all we know for sure. On voting, it isn't worth it. It's much better to influence other votes. Nothing that matters is going to be decided by your own vote, or anyway the odds are so low that you're foolish to try, like taking precautions against meteor strikes. If everybody thought that way, it would be worth voting. But they don't. Vote power: the right is vital. In corporations, you get to vote on the board of directors (yes or no). Nobody votes. But come some hostile takeover, you get in the mail an offer to buy your shares so the bad guys can vote them. Current management says the offer is inadequate and undervalued, and nobody should sell. Everybody sells. Management is out. That's what the right to vote does: it protects your investment against current management. But you never vote yourself. Preserve the right, to hell with the opportunity. Posted by: Ron Hardin on September 6, 2003 09:16 AMI'm voting straight libertarian. Not that I agree with alot of the stuff the libertarian party represents, but they're about the only ones who run who aren't democrats, green party, communists (triple redundancy) or republicans. Posted by: Graumagus on September 6, 2003 10:03 AMVoting is a tiny part of the equation. When you're voting, you're just trying to cancel out some idiot. You have to hound the DC hogs every single day, especially your reps and senators. Every chance you get, you hound them and hound them and hound them. If they don't think you're watching, they just pander for votes and spend your money in crappy ways. You frustrate me sometimes, Acidman, and that's probably why I stop by most days... I've always figured that voting is simply choosing the lesser of two evils. Posted by: Chablis on September 6, 2003 10:58 AMThey tell us we're idiots every day. Have to justify governannyment somehow. Posted by: Aunty on September 6, 2003 11:34 AMA plague on both their houses. And a plague on all of us for thinking the members of two 150-year old PRIVATE organizations are the only people with a right to govern. EVERYONE who votes Republican or Democrat is a FOOL Posted by: Brett on September 6, 2003 12:43 PM
... and everyone who doesn't will never, ever see the candidate they did vote for in office. It's all about compromise, boys and girls. You're never, ever going to see a candidate who you agree with 100 percent, unless you run yourself. So, what's better? Voting for someone who you agree with on some issues, and disagree with on others, or not voting at all and making it easier for someone you don't agree with on ANYthing to get into office and sack the country some more? Posted by: Mr. Lion on September 6, 2003 03:03 PMYou're part of the problem, Mr. Lion. There are other parties. Please vote for one of them, and encourage your friends to do so. The compromises the Republocrats demand are a price that is too high for me. If they lose enough power, perhaps they'll start making some concessions themselves. So far, neither of the Big Two offers me anything I want, except by inertia (national defense comes to mind). They have not earned my vote. I will no longer be a fool, and haven't been for a decade. Posted by: Brett on September 6, 2003 04:03 PMYeah, I'm part of the problem, and you're being unrealistic. The political structure in this country is going to be two partied for the foreseeable future, and no wishing for what ought to be is going to make that change. Yeah, I'd love to see a real conservative in the White House, and a Libertarian Mayor here in NYC, but it's just not going to happen any time soon. So, you can either throw your vote away on a party that's never going to get a percentage in the double digits any time soon, or you can support the candidate who actually has a chance of getting elected that supports the most of your concerns. This very thing is happening in California right now, and it may very well end up screwing the election and California in general. The hard and fast conservatives want Tom McClintock, most of the middle of the road folk want Arnold, and the lefty nutballs want Bustamante. The hard and fast conservatives will vote for McClintock, because he supports more of their beliefs, and as such he'll get about 10-12% of the election. That effectively makes the election between the pseudo-conservative and the lefty-nutball, and the people voting for McClintock certainly didn't come from Bustamante's polling percentage. See what can happen? Votes get fractionalized among candidates, and the people voting for the candidate they most agree with has a zero chance of winning. People doing so are effectively throwing votes away, as this strengthens the chances of the lefty idiot being elected. So I ask you, what's better? Voting for a candidate which strongly supports most of your concerns, but has no chance of winning. Or, voting for a candidate which supports a good number of them, and actually stands a good chance of being elected? Or, I suppose you can just not vote, but that's one less against the sea of lefty swine who certainly will. Posted by: Mr. Lion on September 6, 2003 05:56 PMFuck that compromise bullshit. If I vote Libertarian, (much as I might love their policies, but detest their candidates, which is an improvement over my attitude toward the other two collection of fucktards) at least I can get up every morning, look in the mirror, and not want to shoot myself for being a fucking spineless asshelmet. I registered to vote for the first time in 2000, and I voted Libertarian. I desperately wish they'd run a somewhat more stable stable of candidates, but at least they're a party of principal. Posted by: Eichra Oren on September 6, 2003 06:47 PMWe'll never destroy the institutional parties (it has been done before, though so long ago it seems impossible) by voting for them. To be realistic, Mr. Lion, many conservatives are no real friends to freedom, in so far as they pander to anti-libertarian religious groups. The liberals hate all freedom, it seems, outside the sphere of sex. To vote Republican encourages tyrants AND makes government more intrusive and powerful, at a mildly slower rate than if the liverals win; to vote Democrat is worse (and I'm a recovering Democrat) but their victory hastens the collapse of the welfare state. That will be an ugly episode in history, which I may not live to see, but unless Americans grow up and throw the bums out, it is the only hope. So choose: old tyranny, the newer brand, or a new beginning. One day I hope to hear children saying: "What did you do in the Revolution, Daddy?" Posted by: Brett on September 6, 2003 07:11 PMOkay, so... you'll be able to look in the mirror and feel good about yourself because you held true to your principals and voted for a party you knew didn't have a prayer, while some Democrat retard is cranking taxes, ratifying Kyoto, submitting to the ICC, and effectively doing everything possible to flush the country down the crapper? Interesting scope of priorities. If I wake up one morning and Psycho Bitch Clinton or one of her many ilk is back in the White House, I won't be looking in the mirror, I'll be packing my bags. Posted by: Mr. Lion on September 6, 2003 09:47 PMPack now, Mr. Lion. It's coming. Posted by: Acidman on September 6, 2003 11:10 PMDon't you DARE try to pull that miserable guilt trip bullshit on me, asshole! It's not MY fault the Republicans ran shitty candidates who are so very little different than their opponents. It's not MY fault that the Republicans are mostly RINO. It's not MY fault that the Republicans are a bunch of statist assholes to almost the same degree that the Democrat Party is a bunch of statist assholes. You seem to think that Republican slavemasters are better than Democrat slavemasters. I vote that nobody be a slave. Democrats vote that everybody be a slave right now, and you vote that we all be slaves, just not immediately. Who has the clear conscience here? Posted by: Eichra Oren on September 6, 2003 11:54 PMRob, I hope you'll keep mullin this over at a later date. I kinda think Bush wants to please everybody this term but his LAST term wil be different. YES I know he's not gold in the areas you mention but hes better then anyone else out there...(I think)...The last thing we need is good men like you giving up on voting, you know who wins then. No one. Regarding the oft repeated canard that voting for other parties is wasting one's vote: By that reasoning, voting for any but the victor is wasting one's vote Posted by: Brett on September 7, 2003 09:54 AMAll it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Much as I dislike Bush's social spending, if Hillary is the Dimocrat candidate, I'll vote for Dubya. Posted by: Denny Wilson on September 7, 2003 10:39 PM“The Republicans have problems too. The party platform is still very much a That's a quote from someone named Rick in the comments of Bill Whittle's blog Eject! Eject! Eject! And it's exactly right. You want Statism, or Statism Lite? Rob nailed it - we've reached the point de Toqueville described. It would take something major to change the inertia now, and if the 9/11 attacks didn't do it, I don't see anything that could. Which reminds me of a Robert Heinlein quotation: "The worst thing about living in the declining era of a great civilization - is knowing that you are." Posted by: Kevin Baker on September 7, 2003 10:47 PMHillbillary won't run in '04 because the dims don't stand a chance. The 9 dwarves are truly comical. GW's domestic policies, except tax cuts, just flat piss me off. But, number one priority is national defense and the dims just can't be trusted with it. Before we get all the way down the drain, there'll be a revolution. Maybe a violent one. Maybe when they come to get the guns. Maybe when more than half are living off the rest of us and we get sick and tired of it and won't take it any more. All we have to do is watch Europe melt into the cesspool to see where the welfare state leads. That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. Posted by: Larry on September 8, 2003 10:12 AMFROM NICO JEERY DEAR, Posted by: nico on September 11, 2003 06:57 AM Post a comment
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