Re: Voting Debate
 

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Both sides are evil

This is the argument I have the largest problem with. If it were true, it would be cause for a massive revolution and either a new government or an AC society.

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Depends on what you're defining as evil, but no not neccesarily
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The major ulterior motive cited is money: politicians run for office for the money. As someone who is a former civil servant, I can tell you that wanting to make money is a bad reason to enter govt. service. Government employees are almost always paid less than they would be in the private sector.

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People aren't talking about your salary when they cite money as a reason to enter office.
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I am protesting a corrupt system

I have heard many people say that they want to delegitimize the system: that by not voting, they are trying to change things for the better. This is exactly ass backwards. Voting is a vital means of affecting change,

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Just because you say so doesn't mean it's true. In 2000 the guy that was for noninterventionalism was elected (or selected if you prefer) and he went ahead and changed his views after being elected.
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2. The Democrats and the Republicans are not the only options. There is a functioning Libertarian Party in this country.

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And with my vote they'll still be no where close to winning because of a biased system that benefits the two party oligarchy.
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While the vast majority of politicians are not evil,

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QF....something. I don't know.
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2. Lighten up a little bit. There are all sorts of things that you need to do as a member of society that don't have much impact on the world. You should take care of your kids, you should be a productive member of society and you shouldn't punch people in the face, but if you fail to do these, the world will not collapse. Put voting into the same category as a civic duty.

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Voting will have no effect on ANYONE. Everything you listened above on the other hand, does.

Re: Voting Debate
 

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Any franchised person can either vote or not vote. Both sides have different reasons for their choice.

Generally, you'll hear nonvoters say they don't vote because their vote is insignificant, and you'll hear voters say "if you don't vote, you can't complain." I'd like to hear 2+2's reasons for voting/nonvoting.

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If you DO vote, you can't complain.

Who has more of a right to complain?

1) A guy who gets into the ring, tries to clobber some other guy, but gets the crap knocked out of him

2) A guy walking down the street minding his own business who gets sucker punched

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Futhermore, I have two questions. Do you believe uninformed voters should vote?

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I do not.

I also believe that informed voters should not vote.

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Which brings me to my next question, what are the implications of a significant number of uninformed voters voting?

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It shouldn't be hard to observe this.

Re: Voting Debate
 

I do vote out of a sense of duty, and because I get certain amount of perverse pleasue from the act of voting against the two main parties -- not because I regard it as likely that my one vote will make any kind of difference to the outcome of an election.

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Futhermore, I have two questions. Do you believe uninformed voters should vote?

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No. For the love of God stay home if you don't know what is going on.

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Which brings me to my next question, what are the implications of a significant number of uninformed voters voting?

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A country in which the constitution is worthless and ruled by the media and simple name recognition. Sick.

Re: Voting Debate
 

I vote because I think I am better at making decisions than PVN and think I can run his life better [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Voting Debate
 

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Both sides are evil

This is the argument I have the largest problem with. If it were true, it would be cause for a massive revolution and either a new government or an AC society. The problem with this argument is it is patently untrue.

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No, this argument is completely true. The reason revolution doesn't happen is because most people are either evil themsleves or easily misled by evil people.

Re: Voting Debate
 

Voting is not nearly as important as staying in contact with your representatives. I e-mail my congresswoman and senator at least twice a month.
I heard a senator say on the news the other day, that he has to watch Lou Dobbs every night so that he'll be prepared to answer the e-mails, phone calls and letters he'll receive the next day.

If I have the time to post here, I certainly have the time to fire off an e-mail to my representatives. I only get to vote every few years. They know where I stand long before voting day, and, there are a lot more like me, who convinced those in congress that amnesty for illegals was political suicide.

Now we need to keep pounding them on the war.

Re: Voting Debate
 

I vote because I want to. I'm pretty much in full agreement with those who claim that individual votes are so insignificant as to not matter. Also, I think the argument that "you can't complain if you don't vote" is buffoonish and laughable. However, I vote anyway because I find personal value in being an informed citizen and having an influence on my government, no matter how insignificant that influence might be.