Why I Will Never Vote Again

2011-10-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

...or why I'm through with voting. C'mon...it's a fraud!

Call me a cynic today, but I spent most of my life very committed to participating in politics. I contributed financially, by campaigning and by voting.

But voting hasn't succeeded at securing the best interests of its citizens, simply because that is not the aim of politics and elections.

Today I see voting as legitimizing the damage that governments do to humanity, like launching wars that kill innocent soldiers and civilians; like allowing poverty to exist, when so much wealth is being generated for the already-wealthy through enslavement of the poor; and like forcing god-slogans on money and into national slogans when there is no consensus among its Citizens about religion.

In America we have political organizations that focus on pushing their agendas on every level of government. These organizations, despite their cries against the evils of government, exist for one reason: to elect representatives to get government to do exactly what they want government to do. Excellent examples of this has been illustrated in earlier in 2010 in Wisconsin and now in Ohio, where elections swung enough to the Right in both states to enable legislators to pass bills severely limiting union collective bargaining rights. Only after the bills were introduced were voters outraged...at the very politicians they had recently elected! (See Wisconsin Collective Bargaining and Ohio Senate Bill 5)

If you're a farmer, you support political organizations to promote your farming interests. It doesn't matter to you if those politicos also support things that you oppose.

No.

In fact, you likely don't know very much about these people, except what they publicly say on the issue that is fond to you.

I don't want to pick on farmers as if they are central to these problems; they are not. But they are doing exactly what we are all doing when we vote: trying to promote what is in our best interest.

And really: who can blame us?

But, if we want what farmers want and also want "good things" to happen in society for everyone, then how can we vote for someone who will promote our best interests as well as the best interests of society?

We can't.

We can't because it is at the core of human nature to do what is best for ourselves. That's how it works for us and that's how it works for politicians.

That is why I'll never vote again: it doesn't work. Instead, we need to rethink what we're doing here. We need to reconsider the entire way we run our country. We need to jettison these supercilious politicians and their mind-numbing chants that the Constitution is sacred, that our political system is effective and that we cannot change America for the better.

Here's a YouTube video by anarchyjordan on the pitfalls of voting that you might enjoy. One of the lines is great, since it states the case against the "America: Love it or leave it" illogic.

"When I say I'll never vote, don't tell me not to bitch because limiting yourself to the choices that you're given you just lose your creative mind..."

Two books that I will read an opine about in the future are:

My next post will be "Which is greater: America or its Founding Principles?" I want to evaluate the consensus view of elected officials that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, first openly stated by Justice Robert H. Jackson in his dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago, but certainly supported by comments predating his decision in that case. He said, "There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact." Wikipedia link: The Constitution Is Not A Suicide Pact

NeverVoteAgain

Why I Will Never Vote Again

...or why I'm through with voting. C'mon...it's a fraud!