I'm sick of all the "get out the vote" crap, as though our government is somehow improved by getting to the voting booth apathetic airheads who only pay attention to politics when told to by other vacuous imbeciles. If you care about politics and are knowledgeable enough about the issues to have formulated a reasoned opinion, you are probably going to vote. Good for you. If you aren't, don't feel bad. Showing up to vote is a waste of time, and does more harm than good. We're all better off with 2 knowledgeable voters than 40,000,000 idiot ones. If you are just pissed off (like Xericx), bitch about it on a message board, and then go vote the closest thing to what you can tolerate. You may feel like you are getting fucked in the ass, but at least you get to choose the penis. A little choice is better than none.
An interesting prospective. While some of the people who get swept into the "get out the vote" stuff are probably apathetic, I think registering leads a lot of people to get more knowledgable about the issues. Both arguements are right, though.
I really don't think that's true. At least not in my experience. People I know who've gotten swept up in the "get out the vote" thing tend to be generally politically apathetic, and easily swayed by the shiny new thing. I have never seen somebody join this or any other board with the statement, "I went and voted, and it really made me interested in Democracy. Ever since I've really explored the issues, and I'm really interested in the (insert party name)'s policy on (insert policy)." Don't get me wrong, I think it's great when people get interested in how their government is run. I just haven't ever seen any studies that proved that voting was the gateway to interest. Seems to me that prodding apathetic people to vote gets them to focus for a few weeks right before and after an election. And that's a pretty shallow way to vote. I'd rather people like most of the poster here vote. People who've actually considered and debated the policies, and have thought for years about thinks like libertarianism and socialism, conservatism and liberalism. I think most us are that way because we just find it interesting, not because some pop star told us we had to go vote.
For the record, I love the vote by mail option. I spent a good two hours going through my ballot, doing research on candidates and measures along the way. In the end, I just put a blindfold on and threw darts at my ballot. C'est la vie.
meh, you live in California. You're measly McCain vote won't mean anything anyways, save your time and write in your diary you got going on here.
