*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lurgee.

I have always said to those who say they do not vote because; "my vote doesn't count," or "what difference does it make," that they, like Carlin, should keep quiet. As good, or as bad, as our system is, "opting out" is childish, naive and dangerous.

Here's the long-list from a famous -hacked-to-bits and otherwise forgotten document's grievance rider which seems a poignantly appropriate reason enough to want to shove a vote up someone's ass and rotate it:

Of King George:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Someone needs perhaps to revise the list and start hoarding ammunition and conscripting, because methinks the "vote" be fast-resembling, fuck-all. I don't vote and I am damn sure not going to be quiet any time soon...Average Joe and Jane voters have already effectively been "opted out."

Dear me. you are a sad human. To copy and paste a diatribe from history! My friend, this is the 21st century. And, to use an old quote, use your vote, or lose it. It is very simple - maybe not to you - but people have died to get the vote. If you truly think that the "vote" is inconsequential, you should try voting in China, North Korea or, as a woman, in any Islamic state. Try voicing your ignorance somewhere else, in the free world, intelligent people realise that, though a flawed system, voting is the best we have. Oh, and try thinking for yourself, rather than googling your predetermined prejudice.

@A10anis
ah..to see the ideological heartbeat from one who has been thoroughly duped into believing that their vote makes a difference.
that their government actually is for the people by the people.
silly human.
you can never vote against the interest of goldman sachs.

but your idealism does warm my cynical cockles (still have no idea what a cockle is btw).

why would you believe in a system that is so thoroughly dysfunctional and broken could ever exact a change that the common folk actually WANT for their government?

i understand the desire to believe in a system where the people have a voice and can influence government by way of the ONLY power given to us (the vote) but the data reveals a reality quite the opposite.

but if voting gives you that warm and fuzzy..well..have at it hoss.

Shush child. Spend your time in pursuits suitable to your intellect..Might I suggest knitting. I'm done, get away from your keyboard and get an education. Oh, and btw, your response went unread, as morons responses do.

@A10anis
i think you misunderstood the intent of my comment.
i was not attacking you nor calling you names.

but it appears by your tantrum that i may have hurt your feelings.
so allow me to apologize.

do you need a hug or something?
sensitive people really should avoid the internet.
they can have their tender sensibilities bruised quite easy.

How do you feel about people who don't vote because they don't feel any of the candidates represent their interests?

Oh, well here's an idea. If you are disillusioned with the choices available, then why not set up a party that represents what you stand for? I get sick of people, like Chomsky, who spend all their time decrying everything government are doing, yet, apart from talk, do nothing to change things. Put up, or shut up.

If i'm mistaken, The two in power have made it so that there is no possibility to have a third party in the USA. Unless majority of people is behind this third party, it will not gain those privileges that are granted in almost every other democratic country to all parties. As it is now, you are forced to campaign without any visibility and you are not allowed to enter debates.

IMHO, it is not democratic if you have only two options. Yea, it beats the dreaded one-option million-to-one but it's still just one step towards democratia. Without a third option what you see in the USA is exactly what was to be expected.

With three or more parties, the changes of reaching optimal solutions increase and the changes of corruption decreases. With two, it seems that corruption is as high as it would be with one-party systems.

Solutions: make campaigns funded from the public funds and outlaw any kind of private funding. Make this option available to ALL parties and give all of them equal chances. Dismantle "lobbyism" and stop revolving door completely.

@A10anis

I'd like to call anyone who gives a rat's ass's attention to someone who is most assuredly intelligent (an aspect highly over-rated in most humans), passionate in his/her convictions like any zealot or fan, with reasonable critical-thinking skills who's just as kool-aid drunk on what a person so-indoctrinated may be able to "think" is "going-down" as any crack-head or Cleveland Browns fan.

"Put up, or shut up." That's rich. You see what happens in a 3rd-rate video blog when a voice of dissent rears her fucking head, right? Hey, can go and fuck myself all up in the ass without lubrication, on CCTV!

...just shaking my head at your comments until this one. First good laugh of the day.

...you would do well, or at least better, to more objectively consider this particular "morons"(sic) responses. To not know of what you speak is one thing, To not know of or to whom you speak is another. Both are fixable. You may not be.