This seems like a complete non sequitor, unless I’ve misunderstood you.
What issues would you care about? What issues would make you reconsider not voting?
ETA.
46.3 million people have already voted.
OK, so you don’t have any family in the military right now. What if they (or you, for that matter) get drafted? That’s a political issue, and it could happen.
Or, for more mundane matters, your taxes might go up or down, you might be a victim of crime or of the police, things you enjoy doing might be made illegal (or legal, if they aren’t already), your employer might raise or lower your wages (or even fire you) based on various political pressures, and so on. Do you not care about any of those things?
This is a pretty extreme view, though. Do you really think that a president is going to be elected that will take freedom away from all US citizens and lock them up? I don’t know much about politics, but I know that the president doesn’t have total power/control and that there are other areas of the government to prevent one from going power mad and just calling an airstrike on all of America or calling for a nationwide round up and jailterms.
I have faith that even without my voting what will PROBABLY HAPPEN is what has been happening since 1776: The nation will get by, more or less, slightly no less worse from the wear.
I do understand and hear you’re point, though…and you’re right. Many people to accuse me of not caring for others due to not voting. I’m okay with this.
Probably not.
I don’t know. What sort of issues are there? I can’t think of any that I really care about offhand, but maybe if you list some I can give thoughts, or at least yes or no answers?
I’d hope they didn’t die.
I don’t care about taxes, I don’t pay them. I don’t plan on breaking any laws. I am not employed. No, I don’t really care about any of those things. Or rather, I’m not WORRIED about any of them.
Just a few random thoughts on this subject.
IMO, if one really can’t be bothered to get involved in politics, it’s probably better not to vote. I personally wouldn’t feel right (from an ethical standpoint) not participating at all, but if one is willing to give up what little say they may have in the workings of government, go ahead. Just don’t complain if government thereafter annoys you in some way.
With that said, I am a person who regularly votes Democrat, in a heavily Republican county of a heavily Republican state. Due to the workings of the Electoral College system, my vote (at the Presidential level) thus counts for absolutely nothing. My vote may have some effect at the local or state level, but I’m under no illusions that I have any effect at all on whether Hillary or Donald eventually ends up in the Oval Office. So I guess I won’t beat up on the OP too bad if they happen to be in a similar situation.
But why not? In this hypothetical, you’ve already accepted that your vote has a small but significant chance of saving your friend from an unnecessary war. Wouldn’t you expect your friend to make some small effort if it had a chance of preventing a bad thing happening to you? Why wouldn’t you do the same for your friend?
It’s an “Ask me anything” thread that is topical due to current events. People make “ask me anything” topics all the time when they have a vastly different view or circumstance or situation from the norm, so I figured “Why not?”
I don’t care to vote…it does not equal “I don’t care for my friend”.
And you cannot convince me that “Me not voting” will put my friend into this situation, so I have no opinion on it or answer for you, I’m sorry.
Don’t you see what you’re saying? You’re saying you don’t care about your fellow man, as long as the issues don’t roost in your yard you’re fine with whatever. You’re okay with sending US citizens back to South America because their parents came here illegally? Things like that.
I’m going to vote in about 2 hours, after the pre-work crowd has voted, and I am going to stand there with the biggest fucking smile on my face as I vote AGAINST Donald Trump. I might even do a little celebratory dance and spike my ballot into the ballot box, and high five the cheering crowd.
It was part of the hypothetical – I’m not saying that it’s true. I’m trying to find out whether your “not voting” philosophy is more important to you than the value you place on the well-being of friends and family.
I assume that you’re a decent person, so I assume that if you truly believed that your vote (and influence on others’ votes) had a chance of preventing a bad thing from happening to your friend, then you would put aside your “not voting” philosophy and actually vote. It’s possible you’re unable or unwilling to say this. If you can’t go any further on this, then thanks for answering honestly.
I’m not going to ask you anything. If you don’t value your own opinion, no one else should either.
It’s not likely that the president by him or herself would today, but FDR essentially did so during WWII with the Japanese interment. However, you’re also not voting for Congress, who approve the president’s judicial appointments as well as vote on important human rights issues. Do you consider the Defense of Marriage Act, the Voting Rights Act (even if you don’t vote yourself), Obamacare, the Supreme court rulings of Miranda, Row v Wade, Brown v the Board of Education, Loving v Virginia, Obergefell important? Can you honestly say that you’d care about these major shifts in US Politics?
Voting isn’t just voting for President. All of your Congresspeople, local reps, mayors, alderman, ballot issues have an impact on people’s lives. Again, you claim you don’t care and I choose to judge you based on that choice.
No, I’m not okay with it. You and a few others in here are still equating voting with caring for others.
“Do you want your friends to die in wars?” Of course not.
“Do you think people should be sent out of this country if they are US citizens?” No.
Is any of that a compelling enough case to make me start voting? No.
Do I have full faith that the US will probably keep going as it has been all this time without my one vote? Yes.
So am I worried about any of it? No.
Do I think that just because I don’t vote, all this bad shit is going to happen and it’s going to be totally on me because I didn’t vote? Well, damn, who knew that I mattered that much to America? I must be the most important person in the world if my ONE VOTE is the only thing keeping all those US citizens from being sent back to South America. Who knew?
It just doesn’t compute to me. I have a right to vote and I have a right not to vote…a right to give up that right.
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I think you’ve got a fundamental misunderstanding of what exactly “politics” is, and the job that politicians are supposed to be doing. Politics touches everything from funding schools, the quality of roads, research into medicine and disease, where religion can insert itself into our lives (and whose religion), what wars we fight, whose money we spend, and on, and on. Politics touches everything, to shorten that up a bit.
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The idea that one vote doesn’t matter is, sorry to go here, ignorant. Many, many elections come down to a few hundred or a few thousand votes. Even some pretty big ones.
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If starring into the abyss of presidential politics is too overwhelming, consider local politicians and issues. Your city, county, and state are all political too, and all probably have issues that you have an opinion on, if you were to think about it. If you don’t care to act nationally, don’t.
Finally, you know those rights that people yammer on about. Voting is a fundamental right in our country. One that many, many people in the world, and throughout history, have not had. You need to take a civics class and a few years of history in order to understand how truly world changing it is for the citizens of a country to have this right.
I understand not voting on some candidates (I didn’t vote for judge this time), or some issues. I do not understand making it a point of pride that you do not and will never vote.
I wasn’t trying to make it a point of pride. It was more along the lines of “Well, today is Election Day, so let me offer some insight into the mind of someone who doesn’t care about politics, voting, and the like” in the form of an “Ask the…” thread (since “Ask the…” threads are typically about those more rare viewpoints from people in the minority opinion).
I thought maybe it would be interesting to some…but if I was wrong, then apologies.
If you’re against things a candidate says, you need to stand up and be heard.
If you’re against deporting US citizens.
If you’re against waterboarding and increasing torture on US enemies.
If you’re against sexually assaulting women.
If you’re against building walls instead of bridges.
If you’re against Putin, Kim Jung-un, thugs and despots and tyrants hacking US assets.
If you’re against Islamophobia.
If you’re against Xenophobia.
If you’re against misogynous rhetoric and behavior.
If you’re against racially inflammatory comments directed at a Federal judge.
If you’re against disrespecting gold star families.
If you’re against “my African-American” comments.
If you’re against “bombing the shit out of them”
There is certainly a reason to vote somewhere on that list.
My big question, Idle Thoughts, is about whether you don’t vote because you think it’s pointless to vote, or whether you don’t vote because you actively prefer not to vote whether or not it’s pointless. That is – if your preference to not vote were ever in conflict with something else you value (such as the well-being of someone you cared about), such that you actually believed that your vote might have a small but significant possibility of preventing harm to your friend, would you put aside your preference to not vote, or would you value that preference over your desire to prevent harm to someone you cared about? I assume you’re a decent person, and nothing you’ve posted leads me to believe anything differently, so I assume you’d very easily vote in such a circumstance – your compassion for your friend (presumably) far outweighs your desire to not vote. Is this true?
I don’t vote because I find politics and stuff regarding the president boring and uninteresting and I just can’t find myself getting enough to care to do it.
I voted because it’s kind of fun, but let’s face it: everyone giving the OP a hard time is indulging in the lottery player’s fallacy. Indeed, we saw in Florida in 2000 that the error level of indeterminate ballots far exceeds the impact of any individual voter. Idle Thoughts values his/her time more than the infinitesimal chance that his or her ballot is going to matter, and it’s a perfectly rational choice.