I'm thinking about not voting in this election.

[Limmo]

This is something that I posted in my sad little blog.  Keep in mind I'm on Day 2 of the South Beach Diet, so I might be insane right now. I need someone to talk me back into voting in November. Please help.

I am so fuck*ng goddamned angry about America. Every day it seems like we hit a new low of civility and bad public discourse. Watching the events of the past two weeks has made me start to feel crazy.

An odd thing occurred to me while reading an article about the success of the Swift Boat Veterans campaign: I may not vote for John Kerry after all. I may just sit this one out. Why? Because Democrats are always trying to be nice and take the high road. Democrats are so concerned about being painted as wild-eyed frothing liberals, they won't go on the offensive, even when it is clear that that's what is called for. And the Republicans, and their media outlets, just fling more slime, while the more moderate elements of the media like CNN just kind of sit back and say "Well, how is Fox covering this?"

I don't want John Kerry to be nice about this. I want him to tear George Bush a new asshole in public. I want him to run ads that say "George W. Bush is a fuck*ng COWARD." I want someone who will say "Are you people COMPLETELY ASLEEP? Look at this asshole's record!"
I want someone who will STAND UP FOR HIMSELF, GOD DAMN IT! FIGHT!

I realize that John Kerry has fought for me once already, when I was still wearing diapers. He doesn't owe me anything. But there is a war being fought here. Now. In America. The only person a bully respects is the person who gives him a good shot in the teeth and says "Knock it off." And that's the only way things are going to change.  I'm really starting to doubt whether John Kerry is the person who's going to do it.

I apologize for sullying TOUAMB, which has been blessedly free of partisan ranting up to now.

[Ben-San]

So vote for a third-party candidate. At least that way the angry vote and the apathy nonvote won't end up in the same "ignore" pile.

[Bozack]

I don't know, I'm basically sick of everything political. I'm in New York now, in the thick of the protests, and I was standing around Union Square waiting to buy weed, and I saw all of these protestors. You know what's sad? The one thing that depresses me the most about this whole convention thing is not the fact that New York is essentially bankrolling the co-option of tragedy, but the protestors. And I'm voting DEMOCRAT this fall! And I'm a teenager, too! These should be my people! But I really can't stand them. These people, mostly white upper-middle-class kids, came to New York to essentially agree with eachother. No delegate is going to see a "BUCK FUSH!" t-shirt worn by some Mumia-fan and suddenly switch to the Green Party. Everyone who lives in New York is already voting Democratic. What are the protestors doing here, other than making a shitty situation even worse for the people who live here? The best answer I've gotten is something about "solidarity," which I think translates as "we're here to jack each other off about how right we are." And every night the protestors all go party in some rich trust-fundians loft apartment, because when you're serving up allegations of an illegal war which has left thousands dead all day, you really want to go just have FUN at night!
I don't know. Maybe I'm a crotchety bastard. Maybe the protestors are serving as, as Limmo said, as the "low roads" for the Democratic party. Hell, no major media outlet is really covering that much of this stuff, because God forbid we don't find out the latest about Laci Peterson; maybe  the protestors will force people to reconsider their opinions. But I doubt it. I get the feeling that everyone will just have their stereotypes refueled and walk away.
However.
I don't want this to get into a massive political shitfight, so let me just say this, in as non-partisan a matter as I can put it. I have an option of voting in New York, where my vote won't matter because the state is overwhelmingly Democratic, or in Kentucky, where my vote won't matter because the state is overwhelmingly Republican. But no matter how disgusted I get with our political process, I have to vote, and believe that my vote somehow matters, because without that simple idea, my political viewpoint would be a lot more cynical than it is right now, and I'd probably go into politics, and in 10 years the U.N. would have to launch an offensive against my evil stronghold of Latveria. I guess I'm going to vote for, really, selgiraffe reasons- I need to maintain this illusion.
Hey! A wandering, pointless post. Hit me in the face.

[Limmo]

I get the feeling that everyone will just have their stereotypes refueled and walk away.

You're right about that.  

It's also nice to know that Dr. Doom cared enough to respond to my post!

[linnea]

I figure that I will always vote, because politics is always going to be a goddamned circus--no matter what the day or age--and that I may as well quit bitching about it and participate in my country's political process.

[jough]

I'm voting for Yelnik McWawa, as always.

[V-Adore]

This is my first presidential election for which I will be eliglble to vote. Damn straight, I'm voting in it.

[TALKYdude]

I'm voting, this'll be my second Presidential election. Nader last time, Bush this time.

You've changed man.

Yeah, I've changed, man.

[TALKYdude]

If anything, Limmo, you should vote to cancel out mine  :wink:

[Limmo]

If anything, Limmo, you should vote to cancel out mine  :wink:

Very true, and why I will be reluctantly casting a vote for Kerry come November.  I just wish he'd quit fuck*ng around.

However, I'm happy that this thread seems to have inspired the best Jough avatar yet.   For America!

[andalucia]

I'm voting, this'll be my second Presidential election. Nader last time, Bush this time.

Seriously?  Not to start a debate (not that this thread isn't already headed towards that particular train wreck), since I don't even live in America, but what for?

[wombat]

Limmo, I know exactly how you feel and you put it really well. But it just makes it worse if thoughtful, passionate people like yourself don't vote.

I actually hate voting even at the best of times.  It feels like the SATs - it's all official and I'm not sure I studied enough, what if I don't have the right answers?  But you just gotta.  If only because I feel if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain about whatever the next administration does.  And not complaining about the behavior of the government for four years... well, I don't know about you but I'd probably explode.

[CortJstr]

Just once I'd like to vote for somebody instead of against somebody else. But I guess that's the price I pay for living in Virginia.

[Carlos del Vaca]

A wise man said, "Politics isn't about what you want, it's about what we get."  At least in the general election.

Yeah, I want Kerry to just come out and tell it like it is about Dubya and his crew:  that they're a bunch of lying mofos who only pretend to love Jesus so they have the support of "good Christians" while they turn this country ever more into an oligarchy.  But for whatever reason, Kerry can't or won't do that.

So sad.  But to abstain from voting for that reason is ultimately self-defeating.  Just imagine Bush and Cheney on a stage the night of the election, smiling like smug fucks, with Karl Rove hanging around in the background.  I don't want to look at that and wonder if we couldn't have done more.

[CortJstr]

Yeah, I want Kerry to just come out and tell it like it is about Dubya and his crew:  that they're a bunch of lying mofos who only pretend to love Jesus so they have the support of "good Christians" while they turn this country ever more into an oligarchy.  But for whatever reason, Kerry can't or won't do that.

This is why I think the left really needs to popularize the term "Religious Reich" TM Eric Szulczewski