My Dad is shocked that I have never voted in my life (despite being allowed to for 5 years) and decided to lecture me on it, now he thinks they should make it mandatory (like in Oz). Thing is I hate politicians and don't want to OK anything they do, they are all liars etc. I am not even registered to vote anymore in both the UK and in Ireland (We can vote in Ireland due to some bizzare agreement)
Spoil, then, thus registering your disgust with politics. I wasn't old enough to vote last election, and I don't know what I'll do in 2015. I dislike labour, but the only thing worse than labour being elected is the tories being elected, so I suspect I shall have to vote for them.
I don't vote. Politics highly stress me out and make me anxious, so I stay as far away from it as possible.
Struggled with Civics in high school, not because it was hard, but because I didn't like it. It was a world I couldn't relate to. And there were students who sat there and debated politics at 15. I couldn't relate. I skim politics and don't vote every time. I dislike most politicians, anyway. Look at all the corruption.
As Emma Goldman once said, if voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. But I still usually vote, even though it doesn't really have any effect on anything. And people still say I'm "wasting" my vote because I vote for candidates that the establishment has designated as not being serious candidates and who have no chance of winning. If there's no candidate that I like, I will just write in someone. In the last election in the U.S., I voted for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein for president, the Green candidate for Senate, and Working Families Party candidate for Congress. If the choices were only Democrat vs Republican, Obama vs. Romney, I probably would not have voted. At the very least, this registers my dissatisfaction and disapproval of the system we have here. If I didn't vote, then my vote wouldn't have been added to the rolls of the number of people rejecting the establishment parties. Maybe you should just vote, but vote for people you truly believe in who share your values, not just for one of the major parties in the U.K. or Ireland.
I've yet to vote. I find that all the current parties are just too stuck in their own little world, both on the federal and provincial level. With that being said, we're a little more left-wing over here, so I have fewer worries with regards to parties screwing things up. That isn't to say that I think the Canadian Conservatives are good, I'm not a big fan of them, but they almost look like angels when I compare them to U.S conservatives.
I don't vote (wouldn't have even if I could last presidential run) and I don't really care what anyone has to say to that. I won't validate a corrupt system by endorsing it through a vote for a an equally corrupt politician. And mandatory voting? Are you effing kidding me? He sounds like he is going WAY overboard on that one...
I intend on voting during the next election. People who don't vote have no right to complain about the government.
...that's why I vote. Throughout history people have fought and died to get the right to share their voice, but I was lucky enough to be born in a country and at a time where this is a privilege naturally afforded to me. Plus as my grandfather used to say, "if you don't vote, you have no right to complain". (I miss him lots)
I vote as I'm of the opinion that if I didn't then I'd be making absolutely no contribution to any sort of change. I vote for a party everyone says there's no point in voting for as they'll never get in, but to be honest I'd rather vote for a no-hope party I agree with who'll never get in than vote for the better of two jagged rocks. Then again I'm an active supporter who annoys everyone with my "this party are fabulous, instead of not voting then vote for this party, look at how wonderful they are!". Plus given the effort that went into securing the right to vote for women I almost feel obliged to actually my right to vote.
I fully agree. Even if your vote changes nothing on the national level; many of the state and local elections are very close.
Politics in America is like a two-headed Hydra beast. Whichever major party candidate you vote for, you're equally as screwed because they're mostly on the same side. That plus the strong possibility that voting is rigged leads me to believe that it really doesn't make a difference. Not in the "my one measly vote has too little power" sense, but the one that "nobody cares who you vote for because the winner is predetermined." In a small sense such as local public office, voting still matters. But for powerful government positions, they are in deep with corporations and political action committees who have it all figured out.
I would if I were old enough, but I don't have anyone to vote for. And I always feel like my opinion is misguided, so I feel a little as though I'd be making a mistake whomever I vote for! :/
Unless an election ends up being decided by exactly 1 vote, your vote didn't actually change anything. And the best your 1 vote could have done in that case is turn the election into an exact tie.
I'm not sure I completely agree with that. Super PAC's are certainly a problem, but I don't think voting is rigged. Mitt Romney's top Super PAC raised $153 million and still lost. ---------- Post added 23rd Jun 2013 at 01:40 PM ---------- People have died in wars for our rights, including voting. The least people can do is go out and vote, especially when they're often the same people who complain about the government. If you voted and your candidate didn't win, then you have a little more room to complain. If millions of people can participate in voting for pointless things like Dancing with the Stars and American Idle, they can certainly take some time out to vote for something that directly effects their daily life.
That makes no sense, to me. If we choose not to endorse one of the carefully selected, corrupt politicians who are in the end ALL contributing to the same problem, we have no right to complain? Deerp so in other words you are saying you have to take part in a corrupt system to want it to change? I see withholding my vote as a sign of protest and personal affirmation of my beliefs that the system is truly corrupt. Otherwise it would be EASY to vote for the politician that ya know tells me what I want to hear, and just turn a blind eye to how they got to their position and all the corruption it takes to be a politician in America.
I don't see how this refutes what I said. Unless the election was decided by exactly 1 vote, again, your vote didn't actually do anything. And even though I usually vote, I disagree completely with this attitude that "if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain". If anything, it's the people who do vote who re-affirm the system and have no right to complain. If you voted for Bush, and then you don't like what Bush did once he got into office, well you are the one who is to blame for that, not the people who didn't vote.