I&#39;ll Try Defying Gravity

Call me un-American, but I never registered to vote. I've never seen any point in it. Every bigoted asshole on the ballot is a jackass not worth my time or respect.

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Which is why you can go and nullify your vote. That way you're STATING you don't like anybody.

I don't know how they ballot those tho. In Mexico we're encouraged to do that if we don't like any of the candidates, and it actually worked. During the last governor elections, a significant part of the votes were null (including mine), and the guy who got elected admitted that all parties would have to do better jobs, because it was clear the people weren't happy.

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Huh... I didn't know we could do that- it's never an option that's been presented to me before, and I'm relatively informed, for an American. That's interesting. I'm more optimistic, so I don't know if I'd use that... but it's interesting, knowing that that is an option for me.

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well, I don't know, I mean, Mexican and American voting laws are different. Your friend just informed me that's not possible in the US.
Actually... I don't mean to sound like an ass, or an upity better-than-thou bitch, but your election system kind of sucks, in that it's not a DIRECT vote.

In Mexico, all votes are counted, there's no such thing as "this state is worth this much," and we are allowed to nullify our vote or nominate someone else (during the last elections, a lot of people nominated "suck my cock," "you all suck," "Edgar," etc... we do have a sense of humor despite our pessimism :P)

Of course, Mexican politics suck, they'reeternally corrupted, incoherent (like, you get the leftist party advocating for death penalty WHAT THE FUCK!? Or the conservative party pushing for public policies, so nothing makes sense), and everybody is everyboy else's cousin.

This was a long comment, I'm sorry

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It's not? Aw, damn. Oh well... I'm the kind of person who still probably would have voted for someone anyway. XD

And don't worry, you don't sound bad by saying it. Most Americans who really know what it is don't like our Electoral College either. It was created when the country was founded because our founding fathers didn't trust the people to be smart... the way my U.S. History teacher told it to us, he said that basically they thought that we were uneducated enough to vote for even something like a broom with a catchy sign around it's neck like "I'll sweep away crime!" or something. So when you consider it from that perspective, that's why it's there... but there are a lot of people who want to abolish it. It's kind of a ridiculous system.

But... I've kind of gathered what you think about Mexican politics through your entries on it before. I guess it's just kind of screwed up all over. ;;

And no worries. I wrote a whole essay to my friend... and this is a pretty long comment too, so it's all good. XD

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LOL I just think that that system doesn't make sense in a country that calls itself "the land of the free" and other stuff about democracy... because of how anti-democratic it is :\
And we vote for the "handsome" candidate, or the one that hands out the most sandwichs, so we're not much better (tho some people DO believe that "if we're gonna get screwed, at least we'll be screwed by a handsome face")

CONCLUSION: Voting is important.

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I believe that I would have to agree with your conclusion.

And yes. It is very undemocratic. Yays for irony?

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I had to ask my brother (who does vote), and he says we don't have such an option on the ballots.

Not registering to vote has another perk: I won't ever be called in for jury duty.

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UGH, that sucks :\

LOL, in Mexico we don't have oral juries. It's all dealth through written documents, and the judge is the one who decides... or something like that... it's pretty boring...

Also, we are kind of forced to register... we have this ID, called the IFE card (the card for the Federal Electoal Institute), and they kind of ask you to show it for most official paperwork... or to buy booze/cigarettes/porn. So, like I said, you're not FORCED to get it, but having it is pretty convenient :P

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Well, it's certainly true that nobody's perfect. But that doesn't mean that they don't do anything for you, and that they're not necessarily worth your vote. And no matter what, they'll certainly have an effect on you and your life, so it's worth having a voice in choosing who it is that affects your life, right?

In addition to that, politicians are far from saints. But that doesn't mean that they're all awful, doing nothing but line their own pockets either. For example... have two New York City mayors. The last two... since they're the ones I know best.

Rudy Gullianni (I-I'm not sure if I'm spelling his name right, but my point remains the same!)was, overall, not that great of a mayor. I don't remember much of him since I was really young when he was in office, but my mother thoroughly disliked him. She hated what he did with our police force, and she thought that he spent a lot of time getting publicity and money and that was it.
That being said, he still reduced the crime rate in New York drastically. NYC in the 70's was really a pretty disgusting place. That's where the stereotypes about New York and being mugged/raped/killed in it and everything along those lines come from. But when he came in, he eliminated that, to the point where New York City is now literally the safest large city in the country. And that's not even counting how he took amazing leadership of the city after 9/11. He may have overused that argument in the Republican primary elections for president in 2008, but it doesn't come out of nowhere- he really brought the city together, and kept us from having a mass freakout and everything in the weeks and months afterwards.

Rudy Gullianni was followed by our current mayor, Michael Bloomburg. He already had a massive media empire, and thus outspent all of his competition by so many millions that it was barely even a contest. I think the number is he used $79 million of his own money to fund his campaign? I don't know for certain, but his massive amount of money came into play in his getting elected. And then, he shouldn't be in office this term. He was about to come to the end of his term limits as mayor, where he would have had to have stepped down. Instead, he went to Albany (New York State's capital) and got them to extend the term limits for the mayor of New York, just so he could be reelected. He completely disregarded the whole principle of term limits, and I have yet to meet another New Yorker who likes that he did that.
However, he has been an incredible mayor. The crime rate has stayed down, we've caught possible threats to our safety hundreds of times over, from something so non-threatening as a suspicious-looking backpack left in the middle of the subway to finding and catching the Times Square Bomber within... I think it was 72 hours? In addition, he's required that all food establishments in the city post calorie counts of each of the foods they sell, so New Yorkers know what they're eating, and can eat better; not to mention his measures about salts and trans fats in our food and reducing them.

I've been going off about New York and New Yorkers for a while now, and that is partially out of nostalgia, but also... politicians aren't amazing. But they aren't awful either, they do impact our lives, and (to my way of thinking, at least) it's almost irresponsible to not vote and choose who will be in office.

...Hmm. That came out wrong. I don't mean to call you irresponsible, and if you really don't think that there is anyone worth having in any manner on your ballot, then that is your own opinion, and you are more than welcome and entitled to it. These are just my thoughts. My long, rambly, nostalgic thoughts. XD

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I knew that stuff about Giuliani (looked it up on Wiki cuz I wasn't sure either XD) and Bloomberg.

Ohio has been fucked over one way or another by our Senators and Representatives and by our governors the last decade. Columbus itself has been fucked over time and again. One of the retards we have in Congress right now, Mary Jo Kilroy, cast a vote that doubled the copay on prescriptions. That might not seem like a big deal for a lot of people, but my parents (Read: my mom) are barely making ends meet. My mom's a diabetic, and a lot of her prescriptions are very expensive. Insurance took off half the cost of one of her meds, for which there is no generic available. That knocked the price of the medication down to $75 for ONE MONTH. Thanks to Kilroy supporting that bit on the healthcare bill, insurance won't take 50% off, and it's going to be $150 every month for my mom's medication, and it's medication she needs. When I'm finally back on my mom's medication (because Vector and Meijer don't offer benefits for PT employment), I can finally go back to seeing a therapist, but guess what? I won't be able to take necessary medication because I can't take generics and/or they don't make generics of the meds I need. Kilroy was also on the Columbus School Board before she went to Congress, and she fucked the school system up so hard it's unbelievable. Thankfully, I don't remember any of it, but my parents do, and they'd so much rather see her homeless and unemployed.

As for governor, Bob Taft royally screwed schools over. He agreed with that "No Child Left Behind" shit and implemented it here and approved the Ohio Graduation Test - which sophomores are forced to take and pass if they want to graduate from high school. Then Ted Strickland, a democrat, was voted in, and what does he do? He takes away necessary school funding. Tuition at colleges and universities skyrocketed, public schools were forced to cut extracurriculars, and even more kids started dropping out because a lot of state-given grants and scholarships were cut from the budget. Unemployment is through the roof all over the state because of some other dealings of his.

Strickland's opponent, John Kasich, was in Congress and voted for NAFTA and a bunch of other organizations that resulted in jobs being outsourced.

As far as Columbus goes, I don't remember the major before Coleman. To sum up Coleman's term in office...he's trying to beautify the city and clean it up. Building projects everywhere. Um...yeah. You don't hear about much else he's done because he literally hasn't done anything.

I didn't take it that you were calling me irresponsible. I just like to think I have better self-preservation instincts than other people. Voting, IMO, is like being forced to choose between the gas chamber and the electric chair. That is a choice I would rather not make.

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Wow... you have been royally screwed over. I can understand your stance on this and everything... although your guy Coleman doesn't sound that bad. Even if he hasn't been doing a ton, beautifying the city makes it nicer, and it creates jobs for the people who are doing the actual work of beautifying it, so that's something.

But, to my way of thinking, that's exactly why I would vote. Make sure that the worse of the choices doesn't get into office, and then keep doing that as the choices inherantly get better. But that is one of the nice things about our system of government- if you don't want to vote, you don't have to, and it's all totally cool. If you don't want to vote, then don't. I personally believe in it, but I won't force anyone else to.

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Yay for prettying up the city, that IS a plus, but money could be put toward more important things, like, say, education, and keeping the city library going. Oh, and training a police force who knows wtf they're doing.

The candidates on the ballot this election weren't too different in terms of evil. It was literally six of one and half a dozen of the other. They're all going to keep fucking the state over, no matter what they do.

Oh, another reason Ohio keeps getting fucked is the candidates know how bad it is here, and they use it so they can get into office and continue to fuck us over. Why? They think Ohioans are either poor, desperate (and largely) uneducated farmers, or equally poor, uneducated high school dropouts. And for the most part, they're right, and they know it. There aren't enough cynical, educated people here to combat the stupid.

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Oh, it could absolutely be used for better things. But at least it's a good thing as opposed to lining his own pockets, you know? And if he has opposition, who's going to oppose "I think our city needs to be more beautiful"? With education, opponents could bitch about what it is that the kids are getting taught, or with a police force, someone could bitch about what rights they have, or do we really need it. No one's going to argue against a nicer city. So it's something, you know?

But, as I have admitted, I'm almost impressed by how royally you were screwed over. That is bad, and I totally understand your stance.

Although, I would like to point out... cynical =/= intelligent. You could be angry, sure. Angry irritated, dissatisfied, etc. are all terms that can more than apply. But someone who's cynical will never be happy, and that's not smart. That's just self-righteous. I'm not calling you self-righteous or anything, I'm just putting it out there... cynicism is not necessarily a quality to be admired or strived for. Educated is.

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Indeed, but it is possible to be a cynic and be an educated one at that.

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