Why do people in the US vote? - Page 8

On March 02 2012 04:42 Tien wrote:
I don't vote either.

They say it makes a difference, but the puppet always get played by the puppet masters.

On March 02 2012 05:06 forgottendreams wrote:


LOL. Not only are you demanding "foreigners" have gratitude but you believe we "export freedom"? We export any and all regimes to achieve global political goals.

Furthermore at the very bottom you leave a great ending "native americans and vietnamese are better off today". Lol? We gave Native Americans liquor, diseases and holed them into tiny plots of land without even full sovereignty with values completely alien to them (AKA many natives valued social capital rather than financial capital).

This is simply one of the most embarrassing posts I've ever read. I'm patriotic but for realistic reasons, not fairytale reasons.

On March 02 2012 05:00 mynameisgreat11 wrote:


Here is a summary. I am brainstorming what average joe schmoe (me) can do to 'make a difference'. Suggestions welcome.

-Vote: We can argue about this one, but I feel pretty strongly that my vote either doesn't matter, or at best, has an infinitesimal effect.

-Protest: What did the recent 99% protests do? Got a lot of college kids arrested and feeling good about themselves. What did my protests back in 2005 about the war in Iraq do? Not much. The only successful, large-scale example I can think of is the African-American civil rights movement, and that took tens of millions of people and 300 years.

-Work in politics: I quit my career and work for a campaign/party/run for office myself. I have no money, I have no political connections. I can dedicate my life to it and work day and night, and probably make some impact, but the general system in place will be unchanged.

On March 02 2012 05:18 zalz wrote:
Pathetic.

This is what people literally gave their life for? People took up arms and gave their life for the right to determine their own destiny. People believed that the right for the people to rule over their own country was so important that they were willing to fight and die for it.

Que this generation.

I hate bashing on the "new" generation like some 20 year old wanna-be-grandpa, but damn it if I don't like to be a hypocrite.


This trend has been on the rise for a while now. People have begun to confuse cynicism for intelligence. The darkest, most grim opinion is considered the most accurate, the most well informed. Surely our world must be corrupted at the core. Surely the termites are eating the foundation from under us.

We want the world to be shit so we gravitate towards the most cynic view and proclaim it to be the height of intelligence.


Tell me, what do you people even do? Stop pretending like you are some crusader for democracy when you are sitting on your ass at home. Stop pretending like you are fighting "corruption" by sitting on your ass and not voting. Stop pretending like you are doing the right thing by sitting on your fat ass at home, crying about how everything is corrupt and actually making fun of people that go out and take part in the democratic process.

I must applaud this new generation for how they have turned their own laziness and idiocy into a virtue. They sit at home, decide not to vote, and then they rationlize it to themselves. Here is a wake-up call for you:

You aren't not voting because you are so smart.
You aren't not voting because you wanna stick it to the man.
You aren't not voting you believe the democractic system is a frace.

You aren't voting because you are lazy. You want to finish that game of Starcraft. You want to watch another movie. You want to watch another episode of your favorite series. Hell, you just want to look at the wall for an extra hour.

You are lazy, that is why you don't vote. The disgusting prevalence of pseudo-intellectualism is what causes this generation to justify their lazy behaviour by pretending it to be the height of political resistance. It is like the conspiracy theorist that pretends he is so smart, simply because he doesn't watch the news, instead reading some tinfoil blog once a week that tells him the Illuminati is still out there.


And it doesn't extent to just voting. You begin to convince yourself the entire system is a farce. You tell yourself how you are actually being a productive member of society by not reading any newspapers or watching any news.

The less you do, the smarter you feel.


Now some of you might feel offended. How dare he call me lazy, I am actively fighting for democracy by watching another episode of HIMYM instead of going out to vote.

The truth is, deep down you know you don't give a shit about politics. You don't give a shit about democracy. If you truly felt that the system was corrupt you would go out and do something about it. You would join some movement to bring attention to your issues, hell, you would start one yourself.

But you don't. You sit on your ass at home. You don't do shit and you call it activism. You pretend to care about democracy, but all you do is sit at home and feel smug for not voting.


Shame on all of you that would bury democracy out of laziness. Shame on the liars that cloak their laziness as activism.

George Orwell took a bullet to the throat in his fight against fascism. What did you do?

On March 02 2012 04:24 CaptainCrush wrote:


You SHOULD lose rights... voting is one of the only things that separates you from a dictatorship. Furthermore, I cannot believe an American started this thread...

Even if you dont vote, the very fact that the people can influences more challengers to run for election so we dont get one family stuck in there doing whatever they want. Honestly, there has been tons of blood spilled for you to have that RIGHT. Go use it and stop whining when the other person wins your state.

The question, “If I were President I’d…” implies that if you swap out one leader, put in another, then all will be well with America—as though our leaders are the cause of all ailments.

That must be why we’ve created a tradition of rampant attacks on our politicians. Are they too conservative for you? Too liberal? Too religious? Too atheist? Too gay? Too anti-gay? Too rich? Too dumb? Too smart? Too ethnic? Too philanderous? Curious behavior, given that we elect 88% of Congress every two years.

A second tradition-in-progress is the expectation that everyone else in our culturally pluralistic land should hold exactly your own outlook, on all issues.

When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.

One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

On March 02 2012 05:18 zalz wrote:
Pathetic.

This is what people literally gave their life for? People took up arms and gave their life for the right to determine their own destiny. People believed that the right for the people to rule over their own country was so important that they were willing to fight and die for it.

Que this generation.

I hate bashing on the "new" generation like some 20 year old wanna-be-grandpa, but damn it if I don't like to be a hypocrite.


This trend has been on the rise for a while now. People have begun to confuse cynicism for intelligence. The darkest, most grim opinion is considered the most accurate, the most well informed. Surely our world must be corrupted at the core. Surely the termites are eating the foundation from under us.

We want the world to be shit so we gravitate towards the most cynic view and proclaim it to be the height of intelligence.


Tell me, what do you people even do? Stop pretending like you are some crusader for democracy when you are sitting on your ass at home. Stop pretending like you are fighting "corruption" by sitting on your ass and not voting. Stop pretending like you are doing the right thing by sitting on your fat ass at home, crying about how everything is corrupt and actually making fun of people that go out and take part in the democratic process.

I must applaud this new generation for how they have turned their own laziness and idiocy into a virtue. They sit at home, decide not to vote, and then they rationlize it to themselves. Here is a wake-up call for you:

You aren't not voting because you are so smart.
You aren't not voting because you wanna stick it to the man.
You aren't not voting you believe the democractic system is a frace.

You aren't voting because you are lazy. You want to finish that game of Starcraft. You want to watch another movie. You want to watch another episode of your favorite series. Hell, you just want to look at the wall for an extra hour.

You are lazy, that is why you don't vote. The disgusting prevalence of pseudo-intellectualism is what causes this generation to justify their lazy behaviour by pretending it to be the height of political resistance. It is like the conspiracy theorist that pretends he is so smart, simply because he doesn't watch the news, instead reading some tinfoil blog once a week that tells him the Illuminati is still out there.


And it doesn't extent to just voting. You begin to convince yourself the entire system is a farce. You tell yourself how you are actually being a productive member of society by not reading any newspapers or watching any news.

The less you do, the smarter you feel.


Now some of you might feel offended. How dare he call me lazy, I am actively fighting for democracy by watching another episode of HIMYM instead of going out to vote.

The truth is, deep down you know you don't give a shit about politics. You don't give a shit about democracy. If you truly felt that the system was corrupt you would go out and do something about it. You would join some movement to bring attention to your issues, hell, you would start one yourself.

But you don't. You sit on your ass at home. You don't do shit and you call it activism. You pretend to care about democracy, but all you do is sit at home and feel smug for not voting.


Shame on all of you that would bury democracy out of laziness. Shame on the liars that cloak their laziness as activism.

George Orwell took a bullet to the throat in his fight against fascism. What did you do?

On March 02 2012 05:20 stokes17 wrote:

Um, I have worked on various campaigns at the state and county level while going to university full time and working a job in the summer. I think I've helped a few people who I believe in get elected. I feel the effort I put in (like 10-15 hours a week in summer and half that during the school year... although I haven't done any work during school since freshman year) is equal to the influence I get out. There is certainly grey area between, apathetic uninformed observer and career politician....

Like yea dood if you want to be a power player in National Politics you will need to make it a career and put in probably a decade at the state level. Unless you want to rise to national prominence in another field and "make the jump." This is basically true for any field. You don't wake up with a PhD, or with a hedge fund to manage. Further just because you have a PhD doesn't mean you will get published in nationally recognized journals. You put in a ton of effort. Nothing that is powerful is easy.

If you want national political Influence you need to work hard for it, either through making a ton of money in the private sector, or by getting your ass on the ground and working HARD. If you want state level influence, you need to be a successful individual who can host a fund raiser for $150-250 a head and draw ~100 people, or someone who's held a county level position for a few terms/worked on a county level campaign. You need either a track record at the level directly below where you want to run, or you need money, or you need a ton of effort (Obama style... well really Howard Dean style, but he's crazy so...)

If you have no money and have no desire to put effort into it. Then you can be an informed observer. Spend an hour a day during the week (not at once, ya know 20 here, 15 here) catching up on the political news for the day. Then on the weekend familiarize yourself with concepts and issues you read about but didn't fully understand. Use multiple sources that have opposing biases. Now you can go to town hall meetings (county/state level) and ask informed questions and get people to clap for you if you really pinch a guy. At the very least you will understand the political process better.

On March 02 2012 03:24 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


It gives me the right to complain about the government, if I voted and my guy lost ^^

If you don't vote and you still complain, I have no sympathy for you. Plus, for what it's worth, engaging in discussions about why you're voting for someone can absolutely sway people's opinions.

On March 02 2012 05:25 scaban84 wrote:
I don't vote in national elections. Votes simply don't count on that big of a scale. The Founding Fathers had it right the first time. The Electoral College should elect the President not the general population. Americans forget that we are a Federation of States, not a "State".

On March 02 2012 05:29 Papulatus wrote:
If everyone voted things would be a lot different. The issue is highlighted in this thread perfectly. The corrupt politicians have weakened the voter base to believe that they are absolutely useless, and that their vote or voice does not matter. This is exactly what they want.

If you don't vote don't complain about what is happening in this country.

On March 02 2012 05:28 mynameisgreat11 wrote:


I agree I could get involved with local politics and have a noticeable impact, but my OP is talking about national elections, and the fact that money is king regarding US policy-making.