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I can't stand it when someone posts an article about a politician doing /saying something stupid, and following it with "and this is why I don't vote." No, you don't vote because you're lazy and complacent, but let's put that aside for the time being. The logic of the statement boggles the mind. You don't want to fix the system because it's broken? What kind of sense does that make?
Then there's the people who say "Well, the other side is just as bad." Let's follow that line of thinking for a moment. The statement assumes that there are only two Parties. If you think the Democrats and the Republicans are both idiots, then what about the other options. Consider being a Libertarian (a real Libertarian, not the guys in the GOP who day they're Libertarian). Or a Socialist (again, a real one).
"Now wait a minute," you may be saying, "I might as well throw my vote away as vote for a third party candidate." It certainly looks that way when you watch elections on television, especially at the Federal level. But here's two things to think about. There's no law saying that it has to be a two Party system. In fact, the two Party thing is a rather recent occurrence. And even if it is easiest to have only two candidates, they can still be done, by nosing out one of the two current Parties.
Can't be done? Consider this. The majority of eligible Americans don't bother voting. Which means they either think the country is perfect the way it is, or they're weighed down by despair-based apathy. Considering the way these people bitch online, I'm going to assume the latter is the case. Imagine if all those people picked another Party to back, one that fulfilled this requirements for responsible government. We could have an actual Revolution on our hands.
But back to the original point, those people who say they don't vote because things aren't being run the way they like. Imagine if that method was applied to other situations. Say your car breaks down. You have it towed to a mechanic, who tells you he'll look it over.
You wait a while, and eventually he gets back to you.
"Your alternator is broken," he says.
You ask "How much is that going to cost to fix?"
But the mechanic shakes his head. "I'm not going to fix it. I'm not going to replace it, either. The other ones are just as bad. They all break eventually."
"Well, can I drive my car without an alternator?" You ask.
"Absolutely not," the mechanic says. "It won't even start without an alternator. Now go home." You stare in bewilderment, but he will say nothing more on the matter. Perhaps he even insults you for trying to fix your car.
Later that day, you see the mechanic has posted pictures of your car online with the caption "This is why I don't fix cars." You write your own post, complaining about how you had to get your car towed to another mechanic, and you had to get a taxi home. Within minutes, mechanics from across the country are telling you that you have no right to whine about your car, because you're the one who got it that way. They state that they also refuse to fix cars as a form of protest against cars that break down.
Yes, it all makes so much sense.
-Long days and pleasant nights
