"Don't vote" video (unbleeped) and a bit of a harangue

[avevale_intelligencer]

Here's what I think.

When intelligent, informed people (or any people) decide not to vote, for whatever reason, what they are doing--stripped of all the rationalisations--is relying on somebody else to keep that option open for them. They're relying on the probability that enough other people will vote, for one side or the other, that there'll be another election in four years time or whenever. What they call the "let George do it" principle. (We've seen how well that works.) And they're probably on the money, because there'll always be enough suckers to keep on playing the game, right? Till there aren't, and everyone's got wise, and the game folds up quietly and leaves town.

Sorry, I'm not being subtle. Only I kind of ran out of subtle back before a huge chunk of the global economy went tits up. Right now, I'd like to know if you can get American citizenship without actually living in America, because *I* want to vote in this election. I don't care if you don't think it changes anything. It *might*. It's *supposed* to. And at the moment I would sacrifice to the Flying Spaghetti Monster if I had reason to think it might have some effect on what's happening to my world.

I'd like to see another video like this, only with people from Britain and France and Canada and Germany and Spain and Australia and all the nations of Africa and Asia and South America and Oceania, saying "You don't want to vote? Fine. We'll do it for you." And yes, there could be some Russians and some Chinese and some Iraqis in there, because why not? I don't think there is anyone in any country in the world who knows what's going on outside their house and doesn't have some kind of an opinion about which way America should go. I could be wrong on that, of course, but even so I bet we could muster enough numbers to make up for the shortfall in the US due to low voter turnout.

Only we can't. So it really, really is up to you in America. If you're still absolutely unable to decide, flip a coin, see where it lands and vote with it or against it. If you don't think voting changes anything, vote for the side you think might make it more effective. If you're angry with me for haranguing you on this, vote for the side you know I'm against. I don't care (well, obviously I do care, but not as much as I care about the vote getting used).

Why am I doing this? Okay, well, you probably know I didn't want Bush to get in either of the last two times. I'm fairly satisfied in my own mind that at least one of those results was finagled, and possibly both, but I also know that about half of the electorate actually voted, maybe a bit more, maybe less. I want to know, this time round, if the majority of the American people actually want Obama or if they want McCain. I want to know, for my own satisfaction, which side the majority is on, and the only way to find that out is if the majority (or preferably everyone) goes out and votes. I want whichever candidate wins to do so with an overwhelming public mandate, so that the other side can't spend four years poking holes in them. Also, if the majority goes out and votes, it's a clear message to those who might seek to do away with elections that this is not an idea whose time has come.

So, in summary, I would really be awfully pleased if anyone who was thinking about not voting in this election would take a moment to reconsider. Thank you.

Comments

[howeird]

You're right. People should vote. But you're wrong about not voting leading to harder drugs. Name me one country where democracy stopped because people stopped voting. One. Just one.

I can't think of any. But I can name you several where democracy stopped even though people voted. Cuba. Soviet Union. Philippines. Thailand. Bolivia. Colombia.

Dual citizenship is possible in the US, I'm not sure about the UK other than the Commonwealth thing. Your local US embassy would have information on that. But I don't think you'll be able to do it in time to register to vote in this election, the deadline is Saturday.

I still say I did more good by marching in protests and helping take over the campus radio station and newspaper during the Vietnam war than any votes I cast in the subsequent mumblemumble years.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Name me one country where democracy stopped because people stopped voting. One. Just one.

If you'll name me one year in the last decade in which nothing happened that hadn't happened before.

I don't trust *anything* to stay where it's put these days. A few years ago, for instance, I'd have said no modern American government would ever sanction the torture of political prisoners. So I want absolutely everything that we consider of value to be fully occupied and defended, because it is all under siege, whether we know it or not.

[howeird]

I truly wish I still had your faith in the historical integrity of the USA, but that evaporated when we dropped napalm on Vietnamese civilians as a matter of policy. And I'm also inclined to scoot that disillusionment to the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the people I have been onstage with at a local community theater held cast parties in his den, on the walls were photos of him and the rest of the crew of the Enola Gay. They had no idea what their mission actually was, and he said that had they known, they might have never opened the bomb bay doors.

I was raised to believe as you do, that America = integrity, fair play, clean living and clean fighting. I try to live my life by those kinds of values. But every since the first colonial soldier hid behind trees to snipe at Redcoats marching in formation down the road, the government, especially the military, has been less than perfect in following those guidelines.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I'll let you off the Redcoats--someone had to give Europe a wake-up call about the way the nature of war was changing. I would have thrown rotten veg rather than bullets to make the point, but that's just me.

But these examples just illuatrate my point, and if the people responsible were from "my" side of the political fence, it just underlines it in gold and does fancy scrollwork around it with glitter and sequins.

There is a place for integrity and fairness in government. I believe that, you believe that, and I believe the majority believes that. It isn't to be maintained by automatically voting Republican, or Democrat, or Labour (gods know), or Liberal. We have one means of keeping the system itself clean, as opposed to fighting individual injustices or offences, which is what the marching and the lobbying and the writing to the congressperson are for. They're the cure when it's happened or is about to happen. The preventative, the only preventative built into the system, is voting, for the candidates who either best typify, or seem least likely to betray, the values you believe in.

I understand that you and others have reason to feel that Obama is as morally questionable as McCain. I can't argue with that reason. From over here I see a difference in them as individuals, and in their parties as representatives of the majority of people, so it's clear to me how I would vote if I could.

But I stand by what I said. Just because no government has yet abolished elections due to lack of interest doesn't mean it couldn't happen, and in any case doesn't mean there aren't good reasons for reminding them that everyone in the country is (or should be, and why not) awake and taking an interest. The current lot have done enough evil by stealth.

And the little smiley heart dotting the I of my point came from the thread that sparked this, where one of the commenters responded to me to the effect that he wouldn't worry about zero voter response, because there would always be people like me. I rest my case.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

I disagree with many of your political posts, so do as my mother told me: "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all...".

This one though - I know where you are coming from. I care *very* much about the outcome of this election, and am aware that it will have a huge effect on the lives of pretty much everyone in the world, not just the US. I wish I had a way of registering my views so that they would be listened to.

So I'll just sit here and watch, and hope that enough people get motivated by Sarah Silverman's bra to vote.