To vote or not to vote: quoquo suffragia nulla melior est
by Ex-PH2
It’s that time we face every four years. Decide what you’re going to do. Are you going to vote this way, or that way, or at all?
As some of you may recall, earlier this year I said you should go and vote.
I think I said that last year, too, but a couple of people got all toffee-nosed about my saying ‘you have a duty to vote’, and whined. Well, you do have that duty.
We have a secret ballot in this country, guaranteed by the USConstitution. It’s secret for a very good reason: it’s no one’s business but yours how you cast your ballot. I hate those surveyors who ask ‘how did you vote’ at the exits to polling places. I want to cream pie them all. They’ve been desperate in the past to try to influence the elections in favor of their favorite candidate. I used to run into them in Chicago in the precincts and I would always offer to shove their faces into a snowbank or find a cop and they could explain themselves to the cops.
We’re lucky: we don’t live in a dictatorship. We’ve never had dynastic succession or dictators in this country. We got rid of that in 1776, remember? And it was for a good reason: the European and Russian royal families were all married to each other. They were so inbred they were almost insane. It was for that reason that a laundrywoman became Catherine the Great and Louis XIV and his silly wife lost their heads to the guillotine. WE are rednecks, independent, self-sustaining, self-sufficient badasses, and we don’t like being told what to do, think, eat, read or believe. If that isn’t true, then account for the loud, noisy idjits on the left side of the political fence, the twitterpaters who find fault with everything and hysterically report it ad nauseum, and the desperate need to embed themselves in constant social contact.
In the USSR, before Gorbachev said publicly ‘we are bankrupt’, not voting would result in the loss of everything from your housing and place in line at the food shops (not groceries) to maybe your job. That was why the Soviets had a 95% turnout at every election – well, that and the single party/candidate, that all figured into the turnout. But it was ‘do as I say or starve’. Ask Nicki about it some day. She was there before she came here.
So in my efforts to convince you ungrateful little twirps that you should get off your blubbery butts and spend a few minutes at the polling place of your choice, I ran across this video, which you should watch in its entirety.
This young lady, MissMisanthropist, has several good points and makes them plain with this statement of hers: I don’t know who I’ll vote for, or even if I will vote, but damaging something that belongs to other people over it is wrong.
MissMisanthropist is miles ahead of the fools stealing campaign signs out of people’s yards and laughing about it.
The destructive behavior of the thieves is not simply the kind of spoiled brat behavior you expect from 7-year-olds who’ve never learned good manners and fairness. It’s their fear of losing that makes them unwilling to compete in a very, very competitive world and howl loudly, screaming ‘Unfair! Unfair!’ and throwing malodorous objects around. If you asked them what they’re howling about, they’d probably give you blank looks. I don’t think they really know, unless it’s done only to get attention. They are desperate for that.
I got the candidates sample ballot list in the mail the other day, looked it over, and realized that not once had either of the other two parties (Libertarian, Green) gotten even a faint nod from the media. No surprise: the marones in the media all want shrillary, even if she drops dead in her tracks. So help me, they’d have her stuffed and propped up in the Oval Office, just to avoid the disappointment of losing. Their level of patience is lower than that of a six-year-old who believes that Santa Claus actually does drive flying reindeer instead of a Humvee. They’ll probably hold rallies if NOT-shrillary wins, and burn their voter registration cards in protest.
I’m sure the overgrown children in the media will be sad, too, but perhaps their day has finally come and gone and nobody noticed. Their angst will resonate from the pyre of their hurt feelings and the poo flinging will turn them into public nuisances.
So I will repeat myself: you have a duty to vote, especially in this particular election. Whether you like the candidates or not is immaterial. Not voting at all, staying home and pouting, is the same childish nonsense that the overgrown Libretard children engage in. It puts you exactly at their level. Is that what you want? Not voting is not a protest: it is the same thing as handing the election and the office of President of the U.S. to someone who is far more harmful than anyone we’ve ever seen before.
If you don’t value your freedom of choice enough to get off your dead ass and go vote, do not come crying to me, complaining loudly about the Bad People winning.
You welshed on the deal.
You failed your own country.
Category: Politics
Bingo. As the semi-famous singer put it: If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Here’s the link to that video. I think it will work.
https://youtu.be/sHDoETBhLM0
Okay, well, apparently, she made it private so it doesn’t come up now. Sorry about that.
I like it Ex…I always vote, I’m a bit of a junkie when it comes to this political stuff and this election season has been the stuff dreams (or nightmares) are made of with respect to just how historically interesting it’s been.
If you don’t vote, or you vote for some assclown like Johnson or Stein you are casting a vote for the status quo. There is a distinct reason that insiders and incumbents win 90% of our elections…because exactly as Ex-PH2 states too many sit on their wideload ass and don’t vote. But they sure as fuck like to complain afterwards.
If we the people start cleaning house, and I mean really cleaning house, with our votes. The politicians will get the message that we expect them to what we want, not what they want.
This election is really, really, simple.
Forget all the shit you hear about HRC or Trump or whatever, just ask yourself if you are happy with the way things are going for our nation or not. If you like how the last 8 years have worked out, you should vote for Clinton because she is the status quo squared. If you dislike how the last 8 years, or the last 20 years have gone for that matter then vote Trump and see if he can’t actually shake it up and make things interesting.
We’ve lost our free society, we are no more than servants and peasants to our elected leaders. You might not agree with or like that statement, but it’s quite simply accurate. Free men and women don’t need permission from their government to own a firearm, build a home, or smoke weed, or drink alcohol or fuck who they want. Servants and peasants need permission to own a weapon, smoke a joint, get married, build something…
Trump might not be freedom personified, but he’s a fucking grenade and tossing him into that shithole in DC is exactly the right medicine for our times.
Mostly concur, VOV. One quibble: if you vote for Johnson or Stein, you might as well not vote for POTUS at all. Neither of those candidates has even the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of being elected, so if you’re voting for one of them you’re effectively throwing your ballot for POTUS in the toilet.
Either Clintoon or Trump will be the next POTUS. You might as well choose which of the two you’d prefer.
Yes, it’s choosing the lesser of two evils. So? So is the rest of life. Perfection is a chimera.
Thanks my friend, I meant that if you vote for Stein/Johnson you are voting for the status quo in the context of HRC being the status quo candidate. My apologies for the lack of clarity in that statement.
I agree a vote for those two is a vote for Clinton.
Ahh, but what if, like me, you are in Illinois, which is surely going for Clinton anyway? It’s a sincere question.
I’ve decided, haltingly, to cast for Johnson as a protest vote and because I detest Trump. This is despite the fact that, if my vote mattered, I’d feel forced to vote for the Donald contra Hillary. Still and all, I feel like sh*t over this entire situation.
Ncat – I am always reminded of the stories of elections decided by just one vote. You, by yourself, are powerless. Joining with others – in a possibly futile hope that Illinois won’t go to Clinton – may make a difference. For certain, if you and all those like you cast a “protest vote” Clinton will win. If you vote for the guy who has a chance to beat her, she may win, and she may not.
Here is one of those “by one vote” stories:
http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/139/
Certainly a fair point. But a similar argument can be made for a third party candidate, yes? I, by myself am powerless, but if others stopped listening to the “you’re just throwing your vote away” mantra as espoused by the two dominant, self-interested, entrenched, and duplicitous political parties, we might see real change.
If I vote for Johnson, whose views are rather admirably in line with the notion of leaving decent folks the hell alone, he still won’t win. An historically strong showing on his part, however, might strengthen the notion that third party candidates can win in the future, which I take to be a positive.
I’m just spit-ballin here. Still not sure which way to go on this and the day is late. I cannot believe this election cycle. As much as I want The Establishment shaken and afraid… Trump??? Really?
I think voters have been misled by the media for far too long.
We’ve had the Whigs, the American Party, the Bull Moose Party, and a bunch of others. Well, if it’s ONLY the establishment parties that can win, Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party certainly kicked that in the teeth.
Actually, TR’s Bull Moose run did no such thing. There was no realignment, and when TR left the scene his “bull” ended up a becoming a steer.
Roosevelt decided to run as a 3rd party candidate in 1912 in a fit of pique after Taft’s supporters outmaneuvered him at the 1912 Republican convention. (Taft and Roosevelt had been political allies, but had a political falling-out during Taft’s first term.)
The result was a split in the Republican party’s vote in 1912. Roosevelt got about 27% of the popular vote, while Taft got around 23% – while Socialist Debs got 6% and “socialist lite” Wilson got 42% and a huge electoral college win.
The net result was and 8 years of that “wonderful” racist Progressive a-hole Woodrow Wilson as POTUS. It’s pretty much exactly the same thing as happened 80 years later with Perot.
I think TR was a near-great or great POTUS. But that fit of pique screwed the nation good and proper.
Yeah, thanks to Perot’s temper-tantrum, the country got Fluster-Clucked.
I always wanted to slap the boy for that.
I must have been thinking of the 1904 election, where Teddy got +70% of the popular vote as a Republican.
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1904
He stepped aside for Taft in 1908.
Still, the Bull Moose Party vote total was substantial. Maybe it’s time to revive it, but make it conservative instead of progressive. Yeah, I know — the press would eat that alive, wouldn’t they?
Playing devils’ advocate here, we then have to begin war-gaming the alternatives.
a) Trump: definitely not a Repub establishment type. Possibly a creation (in one sense) of the Dem’s years of hate-spewing combined with the estab-Repubs lockstep rejection of the civil-disobedience of the Tea Party types resulting in a visceral reaction giving us Trump.
b) A Libertarian such as Johnson: who, in reality, has not done well when he was given the mic to answer questions. The chances of this party doing anything to shake things up in the (D)/(R) camps are slime to none, and Slim left town.
c) The Greens whoever it is: most of the time not much to distinguish them from the Dems except they are further Left and do not have much real public support.
Examining Trump’s statements on policy – disengaged from his bombast – and his personal and business history, we find some very good statements on policy and a good, although not spectacular, record. He has his failures, but who doesn’t?
Wargaming those three alternatives, the probability is that there are more people who will find Trump a viable alternative. If I were to guess who has the largest number of votes from among the non-Dems/non-Repubs, it would have to be Trump.
Therefore, by my estimate, the best change for a shake-up in the status quo would be Trump. In the future, if one wants a Libertarian candidate, the Libertarians will need to field a candidate with broad appeal, one able to respond to the very few chances to speak in a way that conveys credibility. This year Johnson has muffed his chance, IMHO.
In a post-Trump-win Repub party, possibly the more civil Tea Party candidates will get a better reception from the establishment Repubs, if the latter learn their lessons.
correct “slime to none” to “slim to none” please. (sigh)
“Still not sure which way to go on this and the day is late.” Cripes. I won’t try to sway you. I will say this though, and I mean it: only an asshole who is either too ignorant regarding Clinton or too hateful of America would vote for that bitch, the Bitch of Benghazi.
Don’t know if you read it right. I’d never vote for Clinton, and as a political news junkie for years, I’m not at all ignorant of the bitch’s record. My choice is between Johnson (a protest vote) and Trump (a man who probably has no shot in my home state and who I think is a complete ass).
His policies, as Ex noted, may be good, as well as his business acumen, but am I really the only one troubled by having to hold my nose while casting a ballot. The Republic has never lived up to its highest ideals. We’re human- how could it? But it has never sunk so low.
No, you’re not alone. My state (Texas) is also not in play; it’s pretty much a lock for Trump, so I’m not letting anyone lay a guilt trip on me for voting for Johnson.
A few weeks ago I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal (I think it was by Peggy Noonan) lamenting that if only Trump were sane, he’d be running away with this election. If Trump were sane, he’d have my vote, in spite of my reservations about some of his economic policies. But I’ve long since concluded that we’ll never see sane Trump or decent Trump – and I can’t trust Trump, as he is.
The Republic has never lived up to its highest ideals. We’re human- how could it? But it has never sunk so low.
Dunno about that. We elected LBJ out of misplaced sympathy for JFK’s survivors and “legacy”. An unnecessary major war in Asia – with 58,000+ US and maybe 1.5 million Vietnamese dead – was the result.
The man literally obliquely bragged for years about stealing the 1948 Senate election. And yet the US voters elected him POTUS 16 years later.
Further: after he was elected, LBJ got us into Vietnam unilaterally, by stealth and executive action – and never made the case to either Congress or the US public that a major war was necessary until after we already had well over 200,000 troops there.
LBJ was also IMO personally thoroughly corrupt – both financially and morally. Lady Bird didn’t make her fortune in broadcasting because she was a “smart businesswoman” alone. Having a husband who was a Senator and wasn’t afraid to strong-arm the FCC certainly helped. And LBJ also apparently had the morals of a tomcat.
I’m not sure whether LBJ or Clintoon (pick either one you like) is more corrupt. Either way, IMO it’s close.
It’s noteworthy, Hondo, that there was the gossip that if LBJ didn’t have your nuts in his pocket, you got nothing done. Period. Corrupt is a polite word for him. With his blind ambition driving him to build an unnecessary war, he bit off more than he could chew.
I’ve heard that his phrase of choice about those beholden to him was, “I’ve got his pecker in my pocket.” Same idea, though.
Okay, my apologies. I thought that you were a tweener w/ The Bitch and The Bigmouth. To your point, now. Your vote is yours and I get the point about backing a surefire loser b/c the D and the R are unpalatable. It’s a tough issue, I suppose, but is it different in effect than choosing not to vote b/c one finds both the D and the R distasteful? No matter how I cut either one, The Bitch benefits indirectly.
Apology not necessary, been guilty of such-like myself and if I were a tweener, your assessment would be perfectly accurate.
Thing is, I’ve never in life, not once, voted for the guy I actually wanted to lead the nation. I was a couple years too young to vote for Reagan. Would have loved to, but in Chicago in 1984 the precinct boss told me I could only enter if I used the name of my deceased former neighbor Mitch Cumstein and allowed myself to be observed voting straight democrat (I keed, keed).
Anyway, since then it’s always been the lesser of two evils. And every cycle it seems worse. I say seems because Hondo’s comments above about LBJ are illuminating. Maybe I’ve fallen victim to the lib media’s tendency to protect its own.
Bizarre, that if I don’t vote Johnson, I’ll be voting for a man that I believe to be deeply unethical- for arguably ethical reasons.
I can think of at least three reasons to vote third party.
1. If no candidate gets to 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the House. (It could happen – Evan McMullin has a legitimate shot at Utah, and/or Johnson could take his home state of New Mexico). The House will choose among the three top electoral vote recipients. If the House deadlocks, the Vice President-elect (chosen by the Senate from the top two) takes office as acting President. An extremely long shot, granted, but the possibility of acting President Pence or Kaine is (at least to me) far preferable to President Clinton or Trump.
2. If the Libertarian ticket can get at least 5% of the vote, it becomes eligible for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund and also will have easier ballot access in the various states. Helping build a more competitive third party for future elections is not a waste of one’s ballot.
3. While I’m sure many will poo-poo this (I’m looking at you, Hondo), in my view voting one’s conscience is never a waste. If enough people did this, maybe the Dems and Repubs will get the message that they need to nominate less shitty candidates next time.
Standing on principle and voting one’s conscience is in theory admirable – just like pacifism is admirable in theory. Either would be a fine thing in an ideal world.
Hell, in an ideal world Munich would have been a master stroke – self-determination for the Sudetenland, right? – and Chamberlain would have been hailed as a hero. Unfortunately, we don’t live in such a world.
In the real world, however, both have shortcomings. The problem with both is that one’s actions generally have consequences beyond oneself. And in our real world, unfortunately good intentions have often led to a well-paved one-way highway to the Infernal Realm. Social Security, Medicare, the Great Society welfare programs, and that abomination popularly known as ObamaCare are examples. There are many others.
Each of those examples I listed above were well-intentioned. And each turned out to be a monumentally bad idea for the nation.
Ask yourself this: how long do Federal judges serve? Then ask yourself a second question: of the two candidates that have any realistic chance whatsoever to be elected as our next POTUS, which candidate is more likely to appoint judges that are “true believers” – and who have zero respect for the Constitution and the rule of law?
I have no great love for Trump. But I’ll be damned if I’ll do ANYTHING that might possibly help elect Clintoon POTUS in any way/shape/form/fashion. That includes staying home or casting a protest vote.
The stakes are simply too high this time around.
The problem with having Ideals is applying them to practice. It is not always obvious what the proper application is.
During the last Presidential election was the appropriate time to go for improving the standing of the Libertarian party – but hindsight is 20-20.
In our current situation, I think Hondo has the better application of our ideals to reality. Anything that jeopardizes Trump’s chances and enhances Clinton’s chances is a danger to the Republic.
IMHO, the American people need a lot of therapy now and over the next several years to keep this year’s debacle from recurring.
Trump was not my choice in the primary. Even then, I thought there was more to him than what we saw there – and I see more to confirm that opinion as time goes on. But I’ll pick him, with a good conscience, over the other candidates.
Just because Cook County has the largest population of dead voters in the state, it does not mean your vote does not count.
If you REALLY want to see shrillary take a pounding, your vote DOES count. Trump is likely to get more votes than the other two will, and yeah, your vote might be just enough to move the electoral vote away from Mother Shitlock.
I’m actually in Will County these days, which probably has the second largest population of dead voters in the state. And, yeah, if my beloved Cubs can win, maybe Trump can, too.
P.S. Thank God I reviewed this post before sending. Autocorrect originally changed Cubs to Cuba. And some of those here would have immediately accused me of being in league with Joe or Lars.
Cuba??? Is your tablet being manipulated by someone in Havana? (giggle)
I heard that the inventor of autocorrect died last week. I say Restaurant in Peace.
Well, Ncat, someone tweeted out in 2014 that the Cubbies would win the World Series in 2016 and that would be followed by the Apocalypse.
Fasten your seat belt. It’s gonna be bumpy ride.
“… too many sit on their wideload ass and don’t vote. But they sure as fuck like to complain afterwards.”
So it would seem.
You got that right! The last step in the downfall of a nation, any nation is “apathy” and apathy begins with people too lazy, ignorant or duh apathetic to even vote! then they complain about who gets in when they did nothing about the choice!! VOTE at least then you can complain!!
Thank you, could not have said it better.
I am honored.
Well said Ex-PH2. Thank you m’lady.
You are quite welcome, Sparks.
Very well said, Ex-PH2.
I have known a number of folks who have immigrated to the USA from other countries – Germany (WWII/post-WWII), China (both of them), Hungary, Bolivia, Venezuela. From them I have learned just how blessed we are here, and just how important being involved in the political process is.
What I’ve said in the past is “If you don’t vote, you cannot complain.”
Absolutely. My skating coach was Polish and her husband was Chilean. They both valued this country enormously.
Graybeard, your comments remind me of the I turned 18. My dad took me out of school early that day and we made 2 stops in town.
1. The post office to register for selective service.
2. The county offices to register to vote, because in his words “if you don’t vote you have no reason to bitch”
Thanks for bringing back some good memories of my departed dad.
I recently patronized a local business that custom-builds really nice sheds. The owner is a Ukrainian immigrant, pretty good guy. Like Nicki, he was born under Soviet domination, came here in the 90s, and is now a naturalized citizen. He told me that every time he hears somebody spewing anti-American bullshit, his response is that nobody who’s born here truly understands just how good life really is in America.
Given his background, I’d say he knows what he’s talking about.
Many of my clients are from former Eastern Bloc countries. Ask most people today who that is and you’ll probably be told Brooklyn, or maybe New Yewk.
Two of them spent time in prison in Romania and East Germany before finally making it to the USA. I wish I had the time to write about my friend Nicks adventures trying to escape Romania and spending almost six years in prison just for trying to leave the country. I’ve not met one former Eastern Bloc resident who likes the democrat platform.
That being said I still think we need a huge wall. Between Kalifornia and Arizona.
I was talking to a co-worker born in Hong Kong but now a citizen last week. He mentioned that in China one needs to have permission from the two state governments to move from one state to another.
As tempting as it would be to make Californiators get permission from Texas to move here, really it’s not a good idea. We have no appreciation for our freedoms here.
Ex, your post belongs in every social studies and civics textbook in the United States. You’ve summed up the current election perfectly.
Spread the word as far as you can!
Ex, I totally agree with you! I’m sure we will see no such statement on the Mainstream Media, but we should. I can’t remember the last time I ever saw a local or national news program actually give a neutral and unbiased news show! Hitlery has the media in her pocket and they all should be put in prison! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! They might as well put slick Willy in there with her along with Cosby! Blind my ass, I’m sure he could use braille to recognize his accusers??
But we NEED this kind of public dissent and discord.
Without it, we start taking for granted the most important thing of all: our freedom to choose. We have to send a clear message that we don’t want her at all, stopping her in her tracks.
We’ve got a history of perennial candidates for President in this country: Alf Landon, Henry Clay, Harold Stassen, William Jennings Bryan, and of course, Pat Paulsen. That’s the whole point to this. We encourage competition even if the competitor is a skanky old cow who should go home and spend some time with her grandchildren.
Joe Walsh?
I know there’s a long list of them. Lyndon LaRouche and David Duke are two more.
And then there was Al Lewis, who played Granda Munster and decided to run for office when he retired from acting.
Don’t forget Ralph Ne’er-do-well.
Ah! Nader the Raider! Isn’t he dead?
Nope. The old Ivy League idiot may now be senile, but he’s still breathing.
Just yer Ordinary Average Guy. (smile)
“I can’t remember the last time I ever saw a local or national news program actually give a neutral and unbiased news show!”
It hasn’t happened in my 32-year lifetime.
That pretty much ceased during either the Nixon or LBJ administrations. My assessment would be that press objectivity ceased during Nixon’s presidency – the press hated him with a passion (the feeling was mutual). But the press didn’t much like LBJ during the last part of his administration either, so he may have started a change that press hatred of Nixon made permanent.
Yeah, but now they’ll happily line up to blow LBJ’s corpse because the bastard signed his name with the magic “D.” It really is too bad that B-17 gunner didn’t carry out his threat to throw Johnson’s ass out the window over the Australian outback. He’d have done us all a favor.
Well written piece, thank you.
You’re welcome and thank you!
HCR = a probable 7-2 Supreme Court majority for a couple of generations, with justices akin to Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc.
I wonder what other “fundamental rights” that crew would miraculously discover hidden in the Constitution? I wonder how long it be before the 2nd Amendment was re-interpreted. Think it won’t happen, anyone? It damn sure will happen.
I cannot, not vote.
Neither will I throw away my vote to someone who who has the same probability of winning the election as the survival of the proverbial snowflake in the Hot Place.
Trump is loud-mouthed boor, but Hillary makes him look like Saint Francis of Assisi in comparison.
It is my absolute DUTY to vote. The famous quote many attribute to Robert Jordan, born in 1948, but found in the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors issued by Emperor Meiji of Japan on 4JAN1882, describes the situation perfectly:
“Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather.”
Too many men, and not a few women, have paid the price for me to have the privilege to vote. I could not look myself in the eye in a mirror and consider myself a man if I dishonored their sacrifice by not voting, or throwing my vote away in some “protest” vote.
That’s just how I see it. YMMV
Get the word out, OldSoldier.
When I was a kid (about 60 years ago), I used to go with my parents when they voted ( my Dad would always let me in the voting both with him and I would watch him select his choices & then pull the voting lever).
The part of town I grew up in was settled by Germans (Bavaria) and Czechs.
The older ladies would bake kolaches & grophens and sell them there, with the money from the sales donated to the neighborhood Catholic church.
There was no bickering or fighting about who to vote for. Rather, it was more like a friendly neighborhood gathering with everybody chatting with each other & taking some homemade treats back home.
My Dad was a WWII vet and told me the importance, duty & privilege of voting. I have never missed voting in a presidential election since I was eligible to vote.
Some of the “good ole days” weren’t all that good, but this is one day that I wish could be repeated.
I remember that time-period as well, and my father served in the 103rd ID. I would (as a child) ask my parents for whom they had voted, and remembering my mother’s smile as she would say that their votes were secret.
They taught us to vote, the importance of the vote, and even more taught us to vote for the candidate we, individually, preferred – not some party-line candidate.
Graybeard, to this day I still don’t know who or what party they voted for. I asked my brother awhile back, and he didn’t know either.
Like your parents, my folks allowed us to form our own opinions as to who to vote for, as long as we voted.
We were blessed, weren’t we?
It was during that live and let live period of politics that allowed the destructionists to so thoroughly infest ALL places and positions of power in our gov.
It is why we have the problems we now have.
I suspect that may be, at the least, a contributing factor.
Ex, articles like this are why I am proud to call you a friend. (That, and the fact that you’re a writer too, and you’re from Chicago too, and you love the Cubs too!)
It’s a shame I’m not teaching any more. Your article would be required reading for all of my students.
I wish I could use it in the local newspapers I now layout-edit, but we’re weeklies and by the time our next issues come out, whatever’s going to happen Tuesday will have been decided.
Thank you, CW. There’s no reason you can’t print out copies and leave them lying around at diners and bus stations and McD’s, is there?
No reason whatsoever! Consider it done.
Wow!!!! Thank you!!! I may do that, too.
BZ Ex-PH2…well stated.
Thank you. I’m sending this to a friend of mine to spread around, also.
Nice article, EX.
Thanks for your response, GT.
Fuck Trump, fuck Hillary. Neither of them are getting my vote. All this hand-wringing in trying to justify why either of them is marginally better than the other will only break your wrists. If you really want change, quit voting dem or rep. Instead, convince people to give a third party a chance for once. Trump has it right in one sense: we need to drain the swamp. But voting for him is not the way to do it.
Bashing commences in 3, 2, 1…
Mattis 2016!
Now that’s a candidate I could actually get behind of!
One of the bright spots of this thread was a reasoned discussion of the pros and cons of the different options before us.
Since you obviously have not read, or read with comprehension, the reasoned discussion(s) above, your post is no more than a wet fart.
I sincerely apologize for rustling your jimmies. May you only be exposed to comfortable opinions you agree with from here on out.
Well, some guy, since you obviously did not take the time to read what I wrote in my article, your reaction is out the window and off the wall.
I did NOT say ‘vote this way or that’.
I ONLY said ‘get out and vote’.
Go back and read what I wrote, and quitcherbitchin’. You don’t have a leg to stand on here, sport.
How presumptuous of you to assume what I have or have not done. Get out and vote. For whom? Judging by the words you use, like ‘libretard’ and ‘shrillary’, and the comments you’ve made in the past, one doesn’t even need to read between the lines to hazard a guess on who you want to win and, by extension, who you are trying to convince us to vote for. Search your feelings, you know this to be true! 😉 A nuanced and balanced call to action your piece was not. Well, don’t worry about me, I always take my duty seriously. I might be in the minority here with my choices, but this forum prides itself on diversity of opinion, right? 😉
Exactly and we will all suffer the consequences together, like it or not.
And what is your point? That I have no right to an opinion? Or that I didn’t specify which candidate YOU should choose? You’re picking a fight over nothing, which is what lars the poodledick does. Did he put you up to this?
You seem to enjoy provoking people. Provoke yourself first, sport. I am not nearly as biased as YOU are.
My point is that you are saying more than just ‘get out and vote.’ You’re really saying ‘get out and vote for trump.’ And you know what? That’s fine. I may not agree with you, but it’s your opinion and none of my business who you want to vote for. You have that right and I swore an oath to ensure that you keep that right. But please don’t act like your piece is just a call to uphold our civic duty. Would you still be so insisting about me voting if I’d announced that I was planning on voting for Hillary? I think not. You’d probably be calling me a commie poodle or something along those lines as you’ve done so many times before.
And no, I am not in cahoots with Lars. If there is a secret socialist conspiracy to inseminate this forum with our liberal ideology, no one has told me. 😉 I was just voicing my opinion as everyone else here does. Sorry if my language rustled your jimmies, I was merely responding in the style that seems to be the norm here: direct, crude and without regard for hurt feelings. And I mean that in a good way.
No, I did NOT say ‘get out and vote for Trump’. Do NOT put words in my mouth. I have the right to despise crass greed and power madness when it is plainly visible in anyone and I also have the right to say something about it.
I don’t care who you choose to vote for, nor do I want to know. It’s none of my business. I SAID we have a secret ballot. That is plain English. What part of that do YOU not understand?
Your intentional misunderstanding of what I said is obvious. You’re far too smug about it.
Some guy: What you wrote about Ex- may be ascribed to me but certainly not to her. Whether or not one agrees, her aim is truly what she says: to encourage eligible voters to vote. I know this b/c this is not the first presidential election in which she has made this same point, one I disagree with her about, by the way. I tried to find the old thread to reference here but failed. It’s somewhere in the TAH archives.
So this means I have to drive over to your house, drag you to the polling place by the short hairs with a bag over your head, stand over you like I’m watching hot dogs fry, and then buy you a gallon of cheap booze afterwards, to compensate?
Okay. If Dr. Who lends me the Tardis, I’ll be there a 8AM. (snrrrk)
By the way, Ex-, I am on record as saying previously that I do not agree that voting is virtuous. I prefer that most would-be voters not vote. A vote by the ignorant (“Golly, it would be so, so, so historic!”) the country can well do without.
We all see how that worked out….
As a liberal leaning independent, I agree. Voting for a candidate just because s/he is a woman or black is not only foolish, but also sexist and racist. But on the other hand, we deserve the democracy we vote for. If we don’t collectively wisen up, we will end up with shitty politicians for the foreseeable future.
“we will end up with shitty politicians for the foreseeable future”
I couldn’t agree more, how do we wisen up?
I wish I knew. The schools aren’t working, society’s divided, and the media aren’t doing their jobs. If someone can solve this one, they’d have my vote.
I don’t think it’s virtuous, AirCav. I think it’s a necessity, especially in this election. Every vote not cast for ‘OTHER THAN’ hands the election to a candidate you really don’t like.
BRAVO!!!
Well, we are coming down to the wire now. Tomorrow is The Big Day.
The importance of maintaining freedom through a simple ballot cannot be emphasized enough. This isn’t the Soviet Union. You can choose to vote or not vote.
If you go and vote, remember that it’s a temp job and the temp employee can be fired.
If you abstain from this circus, you’re not helping to solve the problem.
There’s the very real possibility that one candidate might collect enough votes to force the electoral process into the House of Representatives. It’s in the U.S. Constitution as a safeguard. All the handwringing and moaning won’t keep us free.
The only thing that WILL keep us free is exercising the right to vote.