Monday, November 6, 2006
Stand and Be Counted or Sit Down and Shut Up
If you do not vote tomorrow (or did not take the time to register or absentee-ballot vote), you have no right to whine, nag, or gripe about the actions of the legislative branch of the U.S. government for the next two years. Given the opportunity, 60 to 70% of eligible voters tomorrow will likely sit at home. Even if you are voting in non-competitive races, your vote is important as an exercise of democracy for you personally; if you don't vote, you have chosen to abandon the government of your country, a responsibility you have no good reason to abdicate.
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2 comments:
Scenario A: I voted for Candidate A who loses. Candidate B f's up. Told you so. I can complain.
Scenario B: I didn't vote. Candidate B f's up. I can't complain.
Scenario C: You voted for Candidate B. Candidate B f's up. Yet you can complain? You're part of the cause for screwing it up.
In any case, the line "you have no right to complain" is always used by defensive people with agendas. I'm an f'in American who f'in pays her taxes. Why do I do this? So I can stay in the country where I believe the politicians who take an OATH are going to do right by me. And when I think they're out of line, I f'in deserve some say in the matter.
So I'm going to f'in gripe about what the govt does as long as I live under the pretext of the f'in Constitution of the U.S. of A.
the end.
off my soapbox.
(with that said. I'm not voting not because I don't intend to, some backwards state forgot to send my absentee ballot.)
The logic of "you can't complain" is a tad bit tortured, not to put too fine a point on it. However, it's not a completely indefensible position. Viz, I posit that unlike the rights endowed by citizenship, complaining is a cost imposed on the listeners, and we the voting decree that in order to join our Club o' Bitching, you must have paid your membership dues by standing in line at the precinct.
As for you, while you can't complain about the legislature for the next two years, you can complain overtime about the crappy redneck voting bureaucracy that failed to send you a ballot! In fact, in certain contexts, being denied the vote gives you the right to Revolution, which is like complaining with guns.
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