What were to happen if no one voted? Election time comes around and no one votes for anything or anyone. What would happen? Could anyone be brought into office without destroying democracy? Would anyone get the idea that we didn't like the choices we were given, therefore be required to find better alternatives? I know this is a lot of questions, but it has been on my mind lately. All this emphasis is placed on voting, yet we really aren't given candidates we're 100% happy with. Personally, I don't want to vote for someone who only has only part of my interests in mind, or the interests of people like me for that matter. If I could go back and redo the Bush / Kerry election, I wouldn't have voted. Instead, I'd have urged people to not vote unless they were 100% happy with EVERY single issue that the candidates were going to deal with.
As for those other presidential candidates that try to run against the main party candidates...well...we all know they'll never have a chance in hell of winning. So why not save ourselves the time (and gas money in some instances) and just not vote at all.
I can see voting for city-wide ordinances that affect you personally. But I sure as hell can't see a reason to vote for a president if I only agree with them on some points. Any other thoughts on this? Anyone with tangible proof that us voting does ANYTHING?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
But the problem is that there are so many people in America with so many different combonations of views that it is impossible to find one candidate that everyone is happy with best we can do is pick the one that a majority of people are happy with.
But why settle for sub-par? And why does it have to be only two choices in the end? Why can't the debates be between multiple presidential candidates? The majority of Americans will only pick between the two majority parties.
If we are pickier about our issues, then we might actually see some improvements in our choices. I know that we can only hope to get a president who the majority of people are happy with, but we seriously need more choices. I hate this two party choice and how any third party that tries to run has no effect whatsoever. It doesn't help either that the third party usually has some crazy running.
In short, if we got rid of our two party only ideal and perhaps had multiple candidates, we'd spend more time thinking about the issues and perhaps come to a better idea on who we want for president, instead of just picking Kerry or Bush, neither of which should have made it in the running. They dealt with good issues, but each were far from acceptible.
but we do have multiple candidates. That is called a primary election.
Oh, I know we have them. They just haven't proven very useful. I just can't accept that we'd whittle down our selections to just two sub-par candidates and be fine with that. I think our elections would be less of a mockery if we had double the candidates to vote for when it comes down to the final election. As it stands right now, with only two choices in the end, our votes don't really matter anyway.
I guess all I'm trying to get at is that elections should be run differently, and that by having two majority parties, we're hindering ourselves somewhat. I really don't want a Republican or a Democrat in office. I really don't want a Conservative or a Liberal in office either. I'd like to see a candidate that is on neither end of the spectrum. And I'd like to see him or her be a major part of the election process, not just some bit candidate who drops away by the primaries.
*sighs*
I didn't think I was so passionate about this...
i agree to a point. i do think that we should be givin more choices because yes there are canidates that were not 100% happy with but just end up choosing them because they are the political party we belong to.
As of late I've been trying not to think of things in terms of political parties. I'm almost wondering if thinking of things in terms of issues verses parties might be beneficial for everyone. It would probably be really hard, especially because of last election, to not consider parties when figuring out who to vote for.
Is it possible for us to think outside of party lines, or will this whole issue be repeated next election?
this sometimes happens... sad, I know.
Insert Shameless Self-Promotion Here -- http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ada-castellon
if voting didn't happen, the democracy our country was founded on would dissappear.
As long as the archaism known as the Electoral College continues to function as part of our electoral process, we are going to be cursed with only two parties.
We've almost always had a two party system in America, because that's the way this country works. We've just gone over this in my Government/Econ class, and my teacher (who is excellent), explained it in a way that made so much sense to me, better than anyone's explained it before. Here's what he said, condensed:
America has an all-or-nothing system. There is no advantage to coming in second place in an American race, as there is in many other countries. If you come in second or evne third in many other places, you still have power - It's less than you were going for, but it's still something. In America, you get squat. Because of this, smaller parties band together to make bigger parties and get more of the vote, and so other groups do the same. You have to to get your ideas to survive. Eventually, you end up with the two major parties.
It's a bit more complex than that, but I fail at being articulate tonight, so if you need to me to do so I can explain a bit better later.
No one is exactly the same. No one agrees with anyone 100% of the time. Not since the election of George Washington as the American public been so for a presidential candidate. The fact is that, yeah, lately it has been harder to choose between candidates, and certainly not for an abundance of competence, however if you look down at my quote you will see my true belief on this issue. If you do not do anything just because you think it will not matter or no one is good enough for your vote then the evil wins. If you can't bring yourself to vote for the Democratic or Republican candidates, vote for an Independent. Bottomline: The candidate does not have be picture-perfect for you,and if you really need that then why don't you run for public office and vote for yourself, you should choose the candidate which has a good amount of your interests in mind and just take the good and the bad of it. Furthermore, the all or nothing mentality in politics some are sporting is stubborn, stupid and completely dangerous.
"The only thing necessary for trimph of evil was for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
*ERICAI* >: |
It doesn't work that way. We've got three hundred million people, and every single person has or will have a different idea of how things should work.