Forwarded message:
From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com> Subject: Re: VANGUARD: An Election About Nothing? (fwd) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 09:00:34 -0800 (PST)
Not voting tells the current politicians that you don't care what they do to you. They'd be happier if only 5% of the electorate bothered to vote- that's fewer people to market to.
That should set off flags for truly honest politicians (talk about a non sequeter).
If you don't like the Republicrats in office, then vote for what the media denigrates as a 'fringe cantidate'. If they lose, which is likely because Americans tend to want to vote for the winner, then you'll be satisfied because you voted against the idiot in office. If they happen to win, then you'll either get someone wiht some new ideas which (hopefully) you agree with, or someone so seriously wierd that they paralyze government for their entire term.
This of course assumes that there is some faith in the system.
The Natural Law people are so wierd that it's very tempting to
Weird? You're talking to somebody who lives in Austin, Tx. The capital of weird amond weird....;) But the point isn't to vote for just anybody. I keep having this echo of Federalist #5 (I think that's the one about political parties) going through my head. The problem with our system is that we need a more representative form of government. It shouldn't be simply a football game (which leads to a related but deep issue about American psychology itself) but a fair and honest representation of the peoples desire. The only things I can find that would make such '3rd party' strategies work is if the representation was done by percentage as in Englands parliament.
That's my point. Absurdisim sends a much stronger message than just not voting. Voting for serious 'fringe' candidates (i.e. Libertarians) also sends a message. Not voting just says "I don't care what you do to me".
I'll think about this one. Several points come to mind and I'm not sure how to express them at this point. The point I can address is that it isn't that people voted for a drunk dwarve. It was the issue was so trivial or irrelevant that it didn't matter who goes in there, it simply doesn't matter. In that case the only answer is to opt out and spend ones time dealing with the issues and problems that do matter. The question is deeper than simply participation, it's addresses the entire point of the system that needs our participation in the first place.
last night the ABC web site had pages up with _today's_ voting results, with 100% of the "precincts reporting".
I'd guess they were testing. ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------