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The "Abused Voter" Syndrome
by Richard Boddie
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Citizens are deceived en masse but enlightened one at a time. This revelation came to me as I lay exhausted on November 4, 1992, the day after my last campaign against Diane Feinstein and John Seymour, listening to the vote results (I did get 244,788 votes from smarter voters).
In your entire lifetime, you will probably never vote in an election where your one vote decides the outcome. So why bother to vote at all?
The correct answer to that question, the purpose you should have in mind when you enter the voting booth, is: "my vote can make a difference because it tells incumbent politicians what I believe is right. My vote simply says, this is the direction I want the country, state or community to take." That's it.
Understand that an election is not a horse race, where when you win you benefit or you win something. Recent history has proven that when you vote to "pick a winner" just to say you voted for the winning side, you lose, with more taxes, more regulation, more government intrusion in your life, and less freedom. Wake up and get over the denial.
Nor is it wise to vote negatively merely to prevent the more "evil", or stupid, or corrupt of two candidates from being elected. There are usually more than two candidates, some of whom are 100% "evil" free. Wake up! The lesser of two evils remains evil, and I am absolutely amazed by this overused rationalization coming out of the mouths of some fairly reasonable and intelligent people, and we wonder what has gone wrong. Come on! Citizens have continued to elect "evil" people to represent them, and continue to agonize over the results. Now that's denial!
My friend and 1992 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, Andre Marrou, calls this "insanity." Doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result is insanity or a metaphor of the manifestation of the battered spouse or abused child syndrome.
Also, it does not make any sense to decline to vote for a candidate you believe in or whose positions represent yours because he or she has little chance of being elected in order to vote for one who is "evil" and has an excellent chance. Insanity! A vote for the candidate who best represents your views (not necessarily 100%, but close) is the most effective vehicle you have - short of insurrection - for telling future office holders what you want. By contrast, any vote you cast for candidates who hold views at odds with yours merely tells them that you like what they're doing (to you) and you want them to keep on doing it. Now, that's a wasted vote, and the major symptom of the "abused voter syndrome." (we're talking heavy denial here).
Why vote? Because your vote can help move American politics and government in the direction you think is right. If you are like most Americans, you are not pleased with the direction government, at any level, has taken in recent decades.
Most Americans agree that federal, state, and local governments are too large, taxes are too high, government is too involved with our personal lives, the economy is stifled by "the unholy trinity" of taxes, regulation, and debt, and that the U.S. government spends too much time and money (and lives) on the affairs and defense of other nations. This is still the "American consensus" today, as it was as far back as 1984 ("1984"?!).
I'm reminded of Mark Twain's comment - "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Republican or Democrat. Name your poison. Both parties raise our taxes. Both parties steal our freedoms. Both parties are way out of touch with you and me. It's time to really clean house in government. Demoblicans won't do it, and Republicrats won't do it.
Mainstream Americans must act now to show both major parties (the Bi-Partisan Party) that PARTY TIME IS OVER! Carpe diem (seize the day), because if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. Don't deny it, and don't waste your vote again.
Richard Benjamin Boddie
The 1994 "100% Evil Free" U.S. Senate Candidate (Libertarian - California) and
year 2000 Candidate for US Congressional Representative (Libertarian - District 46)
http://freedomkeys.com/myvcboddie.htm
(P.S. I don't vote.)
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....as you can see from the lack of a single reply to your post in nearly 3 days......(form your own conclusion here).
My thoughts?
Logic & Ethics should be taught beginning in kindergarten; then we might have a chance.