Regardless of which party, if any, you are registered with, I urge every registered voter to do your homework, ask questions if needed on every ballot Measure or candidate, and Vote!
Think about the 2,000 plus fellow Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq so that the residents of that Nation could cast votes as the world watched. Iraqi’s proudly were seen in photos with purple fingers verifying their voting even while their lives were threatened.
Other than apathy, what enemy is keeping us home from the polls?
A few years ago my wife and I traveled to Russia. As our tour bus drove past the Kremlin in Moscow I missed taking a photo because I was caught off guard.The bus turned a corner exposing a dozen citizens freely standing with protest signs. No. The KGB, whose HQ is but a few block away, did not show up and take names or haul them off to prison, or worse.
At a private home dinner a few weeks later in St. Petersburg, the hosts engaged our small group in a discussion which surprised me. I’ll skip their questions, such as the Enron scandal or genetically modified foods and comment on ours. The impact in living under Communism and the transition to Capitalism. It has not been easy going from a system where most of your needs are met whether you produce or not to the experience of freedom. They are struggling in the transition but are happy nonetheless.
So back to voting. Last Dec 6th’s Special Election in the 48th Congressional District, where 26 percent of registered voters participated, was an embarrassment. Or more recently the April 2006 race for the 35th State Senate seat between Dana Point Councilmember Diane Harkey and Assemblyman Tom Harman where Tom won by what, 225 votes? How many intelligent registered voters stayed home in that race? With 513,832 registered voters only 19.1% voted by absentee ballot or showed up at the polls. That’s 400,000 NO SHOWS. Disgraceful!
Don’t allow the “mudslinging” keep you home next month. Some candidates go negative when they lack a positive message or track record. Candidates are ultimately responsible for the message created by their campaign managers.
Quoting someone else’s cliche is appropriate. “Every vote counts and every vote will be counted.”
Larry Gilbert
Vote Yes on Measure M!
Vote for the candidates you like. Vote in the races you are interested in. It is OK not to vote on the items you know nothing about, leave them blank.
But it is not cool to just skip it. To skip voting.
Early voting starts Monday so there is almost a full month to go and do your duty.
Remember, even if your favorite candidate does not come in first place, there aren’t any losing votes, just losers who don’t vote.
A vote for Sal Tinajero is a vote for Crazy Claudia!
Thanks, Larry. Each election I try to remind my fellow Americans that the nearly 3000 citizens who perished on September 11, 2001, were forever deprived of their right to vote. We should all honor their memories by doing one thing they’ll never again be able to do: voting.
Here are a few contrarian thoughts on voting. I hope they format OK.
“It has been asserted that only if you vote do you have any right
to complain about what transpires on the political scene….
We would point out, on the other hand, that only by refusing to
participate in the game do you retain the clear right to protest
what the game produces.
For when you vote, you have not only participated in the system
but, in addition, have tacitly agreed beforehand to accept and abide
by whatever the system brings forth.
The voter complaining about the outcome of an election is standing
on untenable ground. Philosophically, morally and factually, only the
non-voter is in a logical position to protest….
When you participate in the political con game, you sanction it.”
Editorial April 17, 1971
R.C. Hoiles
“The Orange County REGISTER”
This is from an investment newsletter from Dan Denning ‘s
“Strategic Investment” in November 2002.
“The modern political establishment speaks with one mind.
It speaks on behalf of the State. Its goal is increasing the State’s power and extending its influence in private and public life. It encourages the false belief that all problems are
political and therefore must be solved by government.
And worse than anything, the State encourages Americans
to have faith in politics rather than in themselves, their families,
their communities, or their God. It encourages Americans to
think in abstractions and embrace abstract values. It
encourages us to boo members of the opposite party at
a funeral for a dead senator. In the name of the abstract State,
we jail our own citizens without charging them with crimes,
declare war on others pre-emptively, and advance the cause
of “Ideas” at the expense of actual freedoms.
The best thing you can do for your country on election day
is to abandon the idea that your obligation to other human
beings begins with your obligation to vote. Voting for a politician means transferring your right to make your own decisions about your own life.
Vote with your pocketbook. Vote with your actions. Help
a real neighbor, a real family member, a real stranger in your
hometown. But don’t buy into the nonsense that your vote
means something. Voting in modern American democracy
has turned into a transfer of responsibility from the individual
to the State. And in exchange for the power we give them,
we content ourselves with the spoils they hand out to the
winning party.
That’s not freedom. It’s a thinly disguised version of socialism,
a giant State-run lottery where every ticket is a winner, but the
payout is small and the cost is your subservience. Do the
patriotic thing. Spend some time with your kids. Read a book.
Or even write a book. Heck, do your laundry. But do something
that really DOES make a difference.”
“The state – or, to make the matter more concrete, the government – consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another,
no special talent for the business of government; they have only a
talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out
groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time
it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words,
government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” ~ H.L.Mencken 1936
Dear Andy.
Let me open by letting the readers know that you and I have had prior dialogue. That said, you surely have the freedom to express your views. Shall we interprete your posting as an encouragement for the voters in your (73 AD) race against Incumbent Assemblywoman Mimi Walters to stay home to diminsh the size of your defeat?
Sorry Andy. We will not agree on this one.
Larry Gilbert
Andy, those statements are truly bizarre. And coming from a person who is actually running for office? I would assume that you’re running because you’d like to win, no? How do you expect to do so if you champion non-voting?
Are you going to vote in this election? Do you plan to vote for yourself? I live in the 73rd AD. Are you asking for my vote?
I posted the comments just to get a discussion going on voting. I don’t really find them bizarre though. I find that they do have a great deal of truth in each of them. For example, R. C. Hoiles comment on it being a political con game has some truth. The districts are predesigned to have a particular party destined to win. Look at my opponent’s website at http://www.mimiwalters.com/ She has not updated her website since she won in the primary in 2004! That “we won” comment was written on the primary election night in the last election over two and a half years ago. She does not need to campaign because by design she will stay in office until she gets term limited out.
I actually have to get tax returns finished so I have to be brief. I do want your votes. I do feel we need reform in government so that we can correct the truths in the other quotes that I included in the post. And I believe in that need for reform enough to run and spend a lot of money. Even my basic campaign has cost me several thousand dollars.
As I expressed to Larry, the only hope to get the reform in Sacramento that we need is for a new party. Because the Libertarian Party supports both personal freedom and economic freedom I feel we are the only party that can break the Democratic chokehold because we draw voters from both parties.
I will try to post more latter, but this is actually the busiest day for a CPA of the year.
Andy,
You left out one.
“Not voting” is the loser’s way out.
But I will say it is a valid choice that too many take.
Gila,
I would like to add one more thing. I was not singling out Democrats in my post. If I was running for federal office I would have targeted Republicans in my post. Republicans have not been any better at practicing good governance since they took control of Congress. And they have been even worse since they took control of the executive branch!
Andy, I didn’t assume you were singling out Democrats, I just thought your statements were really strange.
I believe in democracy, and I see no way to have a democracy if the citizens don’t vote.
(And yes, I know some people consider our system of government to be a republic rather than a democracy but the point remains the same. In either system the people elect the representatives.)