Politicians and their ilk disgust me. I view politicians as just another hazard of everyday life, something to be avoided at all costs. Modern day politicians are power addicts. They’re in the business purely to stroke their own egos and feather their own nests, so that they can get to drive around in big black cars with woo woo lights pushing people around. Politicians start wars, and send other people’s sons to fight them. And when the wars are lost, and the days of reckoning dawn, the politicians negotiate luxury retirements while the soldiers face tribunals.
Not in this country.
Don’t know, don’t care.
As an aside, I’m having trouble coming to terms with the notion that you can be legally forced to vote. Surely the right to vote should include the right not to vote?
If you do, why? If you don’t, why not?
Because if I don’t take part, it’s not my government.
Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
Yes. Not necessarily literally (though we once elected a town supervisor by four votes), but because every one vote is part of the aggregate. One of the major reasons for problems in government today is because people who don’t think their vote will count stay away, and those who know that’s wrong vote – and since those who vote tend to be more fanatic, we get fanatics in office.
Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
Pretty much.
I was quite shocked when I saw what happens on election day here. You are forced to go but they still allow political advertising so you have to run a gauntlet of political workers pushing pamphlets at you as you make your way to the polling booth. Obviously it is all very civil compared to some parts of the world, but my only exposure had been in NZ where no political advertising is allowed on polling day. So you are free to go and vote in peace and the stupid won’t be tempted to vote for who ever is on the pamphlet they’ve got in their hand.
1) Do you vote (consistently)?
Yes. I think I’ve only missed one or two minor local elections since I became eligible over 20 years ago.
**2) If you do, why? If you don’t, why not? **
Civic responsibility. Showing my sons one small way to be a better person. Acknowledging the sacrifices of those who fought, suffered and died to establish this country’s democracy. And because I’m a political junkie, and it’s fun! I’d vote every couple of weeks if they’d let me.
3) Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
I know of several municipal elections decided by one vote, or even by coin toss. JFK won in 1960 by less than one vote in each precinct nationally, IIRC. I once lost an elementary school class-president election because, trying to be a nice guy, I voted for my opponent… who won by a single vote. :smack:
Obviously, the bigger the electorate, the less any individual vote matters. Still, they matter in the aggregate, and if you didn’t vote then your tiny little vote won’t be part of the total. (And yes, you can still complain about politicians - you didn’t lose your First Amendment rights by not voting).
4) Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
That’s a toughie. I think most politicians really do try to do what they think their constituents want them to do (sometimes cravenly, but more often out of public-spiritedness). That said, the wealthy and well-connected certainly get what they want out of government more often than do the poor, the homeless, the uninsured, etc. American elected officeholders are also whiter, richer and disproportionately male compared to the country as a whole.
Honestly, I’d feel guilty if I didn’t vote. Like I’d let the side down, or something. Besides, it makes me feel kinda superior to most of humanity throughout history. (Pah, in your face, 12th century serfdom! )
Technically, of course one vote can count. Here in the US, most electoral subdivisions are gerrymandered to prevent this. This is probably not a very good thing.
No, of course not. To get to the general election, you’ve got to convince the more extreme hard-core partisans in the primaries. This means you have to walk the walk, since they’ll remember what your vote was on bill HR-whatever. Then you’ve got to face the voting populace, who only have to think you represent them, and are less likely to know HR-whatever even existed. So all you need do is talk the talk. The result is, the officials do not represent the populace as a whole very well. This is good, because so much of the populace are willfully ignorant of current affairs. It is bad, however, since most of the legislature doesn’t always inmmediately understand how their decisions are going to affect the populace they “represent”.
Do you vote (consistently)?
Yes. The only times I didn’t vote it was because there were problems with my registrations, due to this strange thing I do (moving out of the country and back the whole time). After that time, I decided I’m simply not going to register at the consulate ever again.
If you do, why? If you don’t, why not?
My family were in Parliament waaay back when. Then, for 300 years, we had rulers who didn’t dare call up a meeting of Parliament, or who just didn’t recognize it as a legal entity. Hell yeah I vote.
Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
Yes. Several years back, a small party got 2 seats in the Europarliament (“protest vote”, their voters weren’t so much “for” them as against the other parties); if they had had 40 (forty) more votes, they would have gotten a 3rd. I know more than 50 people who would have voted for them but didn’t because “they’re not going to get a single seat anyway”. Oh, yeah? Well, if every idiot who thought like that had voted they might have got 4! (For the record, I voted for a different party)
Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
To a point. After all, they have to volunteer, so whether they’re in it looking for the honeypot or looking to serve, they are representative of people with enough cojones to run for office.
I do believe that people who would never run for any kind of office (not just political, people who wouldn’t even want to be secretary of their Neighbor’s Association for 6 months because it’s “too much work”) have half as much of a right to complain about elected officers as those who are willing to take office; again, any kind of office.
2)I’m in a compulsory voting jurisdiction. But I’d vote anyway, and I intend to thake the time to vote informal at the next national election here. The reason for all that: duty.
Sure, every vote counts, but yes I’m quite aware that voting to influence the outcome of a large number elcection is not instrumentally rational.
I don’t think the term “truly representative of the populace” has a coherent meaning.
There has yet to be a candidate I wish to vote for. No one’s platform matches my political beliefs.
Kind of. I think if everyone who says they know they’re just voting for a “lesser” evil would abstain, it would send a louder message, like: we don’t vote for evil at all. But the people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people, like the man said.
If you do, why? If you don’t, why not?
I believe (after serving 22 years in the Navy) that it is my responsibility to participate in my government and let my wishes be known. I normally vote against whoever is in office because I believe in giving another crook a chance.
Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
Yep.
Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
Nope, they represent the people who paid for their election and if it agrees with me then they sort-of represent me.
1) Do you vote (consistently)?
Yes, whenever I can.
2) If you do, why? If you don’t, why not?
Because mankind has lived under oppressive yoke for most of its existence, and though my voice is small, it is at least a voice. Add to this the sacrifices my grandparents’ generation made for me resisting tyranny - I owe it to them.
3) Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
It’s very unlikely, but it can happen.
4) Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
In the UK, not very much, since it’s first-past-the-post (when I was in Ireland moreso, as they have proportional representation). Since few parties tally exactly with my own views, I tend to indulge in strategic and negative voting.
Two reasons. First of all, free and open elections are, set against the grand scheme of worldwide history, a significant aberration, a tiny flicker of hope amid the foetid swamp of dictatorial oppression, and many, many people have fought and died to give me the opportunity to participate in the body that governs the land on which I live; I’d be an ungrateful bastard if I dismissed that sacrifice and refused the opportunity. Second, if I don’t vote, then that makes all the other votes cast by fools and shitheads fractionally more important; I know that if I leave a vacuum that others will move in to occupy it. Basically, I vote to balance out the contributions of the stupid.
3) Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
Pragmatically speaking, no, not really. Elections rarely swing by so tight a margin, though occasionally, they can. (See the last Washington State gubernatorial race.) However, it takes a lot of ones added together to make a many.
4) Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
Representative of the populace, no. However, I believe my elected officials are exactly representative of the sort of person who typically gets elected. No better, no worse.
No, but I will when I am able.
**2) If you do, why? If you don’t, why not? **
I don’t because I cannot; I am not yet a citizen. When I can, I will, because if I want to have a say about the place I live, it should be because I participated. I feel I have the responsibility to vote and vote as wisely as I feel possible, and I have a responsibility to understand how the world around me works and what I can do about it. Voting gives me this voice. Voting gives me this freedom. I did it in Canada, and I will do the same here, when/if allowed. No one forced me to live here, I came of my own volition, and I feel that I should take part. It is a priviledge to be a part of it. I also want to raise my children here, and they will be all American - I want to set an example for them. I love my home country of Canada, but I live here in the US and I will live here for the rest of my life. It is my duty to take part in my community, and one day, my “new” home country, if they’ll have me, of course.
3) Do you believe that “one vote can count”?
I believe many “one votes” can count, so yeah. Kind of. If nobody voted, there wouldn’t be much to count, would there? All those ones have to add up to something.
4) Lastly, do you believe (y)our elected officials are truly representative of the populace?
I have no business voicing an opinion if I don’t at least do that.
Sometimes.
I’m not really sure what this question means. It sounds like you’re asking if the elected politicians are representative of some sort of everyman in their district/state/nation. If that’s what you mean, then no.
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