Forum Post: No vote solution.
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 28, 2011, 1:10 a.m. EST by tedguhl
(0)
from New Britain, CT
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I have come to the unhappy conclusion that the candidate I can support for almost any national office doesn’t exist in the upcoming elections. I had been drifting towards Ron Paul but some of his beliefs (on civil rights and separation of Church and State and DOMA) I simply cannot swallow. I would love to believe in the audacity of hope aka Obama style but it has been a sore disappointment. I can count congressman I trust to represent the needs of the people on one hand.
So, maybe this is a sign. Maybe this is telling me something I need to listen to.
Don’t vote for any of these political animals. Big money has bought them (even those who can’t admit they have been bought.)
DON’T VOTE!
By refusing to cast a vote for what I do not believe in, I am opting out of the hypocrisy. I send a much stronger message this way. Not voting, if enough people join in, is a vote – a vote of no confidence in our current government and elections.
I believe I will go to my polling place and stand outside encouraging people to not vote.
Won’t you join me?
Absolutely and unequivocally not; I think you're making a grievous error by doing this. Failing to vote does not indicate a vote of no confidence; it simply passes the buck (and the power) to those who remain that do. Even if you could convince 99.9% of this country to boycott the election, all that would happen is that the 300,000 people left would choose our new government and you would have officially discarded your right to complain about that government.
Our political process is far from perfect, but that means that we as a country need to be doing more, not less. If neither party works for us on a national scale, then that means that we aren't making our voices heard enough. Get involved in the local chapter of the party that dominates your locality, and put your name behind at least one interest group with whom you agree 95+ percent of the time. At the end of the day, power resides within the system whether we like it or not. If we want to step up and claim that power, then the only real way to do so is to take up a place within that system that gives us access to it.