Do you bother to vote?

Cuntified C

And if so, who d'you vote for? I think in America you have Democrates and Republicans, whereas we in the uk mainly have Conservatives and Labour which are right and left wing respectively. Then we'd have the liberal democrates who are further left wing. There are other independant parties such as the BNP, which are very right wing, and are possibly the English equivalent of the Front Nationale in France I guess. I used to vote labour but next time I vote, I'll just spoil the ballot which means I have no faith in any of the parties. Simply put, I think they are all pretty full of shit, and all these election campaigns which are there just to show people they are for the people and is all about image. Their speeches are just carefully selected words just to try and rouse excitement and interest just enough to get your vote, and when they do, their policies don't really change much or are changed to become even worse!

josevolution

off course i vote it's our duty .......for who still to be decided

Cuntified C

josevolution wrote:

off course i vote it's our duty .......for who still to be decided

You know, lots of people say that. I suppose it's our duty to vote for what we WANT. But when people will say stuff just to get your vote and then don't deliver what you'd expect. I don't feel I should by into that, personally.

know1

Nope. I do not agree enough with any candidate to endorse their actions for 2 years or 4 years or whatever.

josevolution

it just makes me feel like at least i've done my citizen duty, i do research and then i make a choice as to who represents what i consider to be a smart candidate ,just can't say well i don't believe any of the candidates so i won't vote this time .....

Cuntified C

josevolution wrote:

it just makes me feel like at least i've done my citizen duty, i do research and then i make a choice as to who represents what i consider to be a smart candidate ,just can't say well i don't believe any of the candidates so i won't vote this time .....

I think most people feel the same way as you do.

josevolution

Cuntified C wrote:

I think most people feel the same way as you do.

you could be right but here where i work i get to talk to a lot of spanish and african american's and you know maybe 2 out of 10 people say they vote the rest allways say why vote my measle vote won't make a difference ,i just shake my head and walk away ........they really have no clue

Gremmie95

call it cliche but I do beleive you shouldn't bitch if you don't vote.

Uncle Leo

Gremmie95 wrote:

call it cliche but I do beleive you shouldn't bitch if you don't vote.

I will call it a cliche, but it may be true. I dunno. Ideally, I'd like to vote for good candidates as opposed to the "least bad" candidate. Therefore, part of me thinks that if there are no good candidates, I should abstain. And I have to respect that decision of others to do so (i.e. Know1). Ultimately, however, I usually vote for the one that I could live with. There is always a good presidential candidate (if you go beyond the two parties). However, some other races may not have as many choices.

If you acutally liked Kerry and did not vote, then yes, your complaints about Bush are weakened.

stu gee

Voted Scottish National Party today in the national and local elections, always make the effort to vote.

josevolution

Gremmie95 wrote:

call it cliche but I do beleive you shouldn't bitch if you don't vote.

yeah that is what i was allways told ,if you don't vote you really have no right to bitch about who is in office , i mean you can complain but it's very hipocritical to do so ......just like when mom put's dinner on the table and you look at it and say ehw i don't like that with out tasting it first .........i know weird annology ....

macgyver06

i vote...but i think its the other way around..if you dont vote..you do have the right to bitch because if no one voted it would be a tie.

I cannot be held responsible for the events The Bush family will bring us in the next few years.

P.S. The Bush's won't be in the country.

Heineken Helen

josevolution wrote:

yeah that is what i was allways told ,if you don't vote you really have no right to bitch about who is in office , i mean you can complain but it's very hipocritical to do so ......just like when mom put's dinner on the table and you look at it and say ehw i don't like that with out tasting it first .........i know weird annology ....

That's a very stupid way of looking at it to be honest. Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive but I had this argument with dunk in the 'spoiling votes' thread. I said I probably won't vote because I don't like ANY candidate... and he basically said that I HAVE to vote because I CAN so even if there's nobody I like I should spoil my vote and that he can't understand people who don't vote in any way. But I think that's silly, I can't understand people who think I should vote in order not to vote... if there's nobody I like I shouldn't have to and it's as simple as that. That's why voting has never been mandatory in democratic countries... we all have the right to abstain. After all, voting IS about choosing and some simply choose NOT to vote.

We have a general election coming up in a couple of weeks and at first I thought I'll spoil my vote, then decided that's pointless so I won't turn up at all, I've now decided that there MAY be one or two local candidates who're not so bad after all... so I'll do further digging and see if I decide either of them are worthy of me bothering to show up

Inkdaub

I used to feel we should vote no matter what. My reasoning was that if voter turnout was high enough the politicians would realize too many people were paying attention to continue lying and ignoring promises they make to their constituencies.

I still feel that way but I'm wavering. Political campaigns...politics in general...are focused on exploiting herd mentality. I'm not sure a bigger herd will do much good.

That said, I vote every election.

Herbo

no, no I dont.

sicnevol

indeed, every chance i get. I can;t be upset about A system i don;t put into.

Heineken Helen

sicnevol wrote:

indeed, every chance i get. I can;t be upset about A system i don;t put into.

Yeh ya can... I didn't vote in the US elections but do ya think the results didn't piss ME off?

You can be upset and complain about whatever you want to be upset and complain about.

That mindset just confuses me.

mammasan

I try to vote in every election, be it the presidental election or the town council election. It's my philosophy that if you do not use the voice given to you to dictate what actions our government should or shouldn't take then you risk the chance of that voice being taken away.

Braighni

josevolution wrote:

Gremmie95 wrote:

call it cliche but I do beleive you shouldn't bitch if you don't vote.

yeah that is what i was allways told ,if you don't vote you really have no right to bitch about who is in office , i mean you can complain but it's very hipocritical to do so ......just like when mom put's dinner on the table and you look at it and say ehw i don't like that with out tasting it first .........i know weird annology ....

How about...
Mom: "What would you like for dinner kiddo?"
Son: *shrugs shoulders* "Whatever!"
30 mins later
Mom: "There you go."
Son: "Ugh! Thats horrible!"

He bloody well asked for it IMHO.

Heineken Helen wrote:

.... if there's nobody I like I shouldn't have to and it's as simple as that....

How about voting for the person you hate the least?

Heineken Helen

Braighni wrote:

How about voting for the person you hate the least?

I really don't see the logic in that

I don't actually HATE any of them... none have done anything personally to me... BUT I just don't like any of them either.

Ok, there's one who I know for a fact that I would would hate to see back in... should I vote therefore just giving the rest of them random numbers and her last?

I'm sorry, I just really don't see the big deal in choosing not to vote. Even if you educate yourself on who's promising what (which I have, I've actually gone to the election website and checked each candidate individually in my locality - some I've been aware of before anyway), why should we believe any of them?

Braighni

Well, free country. I don't mind what you do with it.
Just throwing in a suggestion or two.

Heres another one.

If you don't want to use your vote (this time around) and someone you like/respect does, why not offer it to them and let them choose?

Heineken Helen

Braighni wrote:

Well, free country. I don't mind what you do with it.
Just throwing in a suggestion or two.

Heres another one.

If you don't want to use your vote (this time around) and someone you like/respect does, why not offer it to them and let them choose?

Because my choice is not to use my vote... THAT's my vote. It's not that I just don't care. I always have voted since I turned 18... even went to Cavan and back just to vote. Actually one time my sister and I DIDN'T go to Cavan, I think it was the Nice Treaty thing... one of us was voting yes, the other no, so we finally agreed that it would be stupid for both of us to travel for 3 and half hours when we cancel eachother out .

So if I give my vote to someone I like/respect they would eliminate the reason for me not voting in the first place

Kann

Heineken Helen wrote:

I'm sorry, I just really don't see the big deal in choosing not to vote. Even if you educate yourself on who's promising what (which I have, I've actually gone to the election website and checked each candidate individually in my locality - some I've been aware of before anyway), why should we believe any of them?

During the presidential elections of 2002 in France, we were plenty to think that way (30% of all voters) and just didn't go. Because they all sucked and didn't exactly seem right. Of these 30% a vast majority would have voted left. As a result the candidate representing the left didn't have enough votes to qualify for the second part of the election and lost his place to our far right extremist dick.
This year, the choices were even worse (particularly to the left) but more than 85% voted and we didn't have to face that lame result we had in 2002.
So not only voting to avoid the worse avoided us the worst, but we also won back some credibility towards our neighbours (sorry by the way).

Heineken Helen

Kann wrote:

During the presidential elections of 2002 in France, we were plenty to think that way (30% of all voters) and just didn't go. Because they all sucked and didn't exactly seem right. Of these 30% a vast majority would have voted left. As a result the candidate representing the left didn't have enough votes to qualify for the second part of the election and lost his place to our far right extremist dick.
This year, the choices were even worse (particularly to the left) but more than 85% voted and we didn't have to face that lame result we had in 2002.
So not only voting to avoid the worse avoided us the worst, but we also won back some credibility towards our neighbours (sorry by the way).

Well I see what you mean... and I remember that election. If our candidates were as extreme as that though, I would have absolutely no hesitation in voting. I've explained my reasons here for not voting and I always do vote otherwise. Our main party basically made most of us rich but we've a crap infrastructure... the oppositions would probably improve the infrastructure but I'm not sure they could handle such a strong economy and we'd all end up struggling. As far as I can see, each party has one or two good things going for them and a million bad things going for them and I think each will be a bad idea to be honest... I'm not sure which is the worst of them though, hence my delay in a decision.

I've said though that I probably WILL vote (in this thread or another I'm not sure) but if I decide not to vote because I think don't care about any of them, well that's my prerogative don't ya think?

Kann

Heineken Helen wrote:

but if I decide not to vote because I think don't care about any of them, well that's my prerogative don't ya think?

Absolutely, after all we vote to stay free to choose not to vote! Sometimes it can be dangerous not to vote, but I understand your choices don't suck as much as they do here.

Heineken Helen

Kann wrote:

Absolutely, after all we vote to stay free to choose not to vote! Sometimes it can be dangerous not to vote, but I understand your choices don't suck as much as they do here.

Well absolutely, I do feel my vote makes a difference but in this case I don't think that difference really matters