The 2012 "Election" thread

[Wombaticus Rex]

I don't know, either and nothing showed up immediately. I'll go digging. Just a memory from my radical youth.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Ah, so: the Botha admin tried to offer a not-even-half-assed consolation measure of local "Community Councils" in an attempt to make an attempt to attempt the appearance of caring about real democracy. The UDF - a broad coalition, not the more militant and tightly-knit ANC - was behind the calls for a voting boycott.

However, this was not a boycott of general elections.

[eyeno]

Its true though that if there was absolutely no voters that there would be no platform to hang the circus on. Frankly this may be the desired vision of the future by the ring masters. They wouldn't have to bother themselves with the circus.

But what would the future look like when the illusion of free choice disappeared? What would the new mechanism of control be? Drugs and microchips? I don't know what it would be but the current method of maintaining the illusion of freedom seems to offer more freedom than any alternative I can conjure up in my head.

[Wombaticus Rex]

[Belligerent Savant]

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I know this is the hot button of hot buttons, and the position I've come to occupy on it after many years is usually misunderstood, so I should probably shut up since I don't want to engage in a 30-post exchange that leaves us nowhere, but...

Why hasn't this worked yet?

It was originally the case that only about a third or less of people could even vote, and the politicians who were elected were at least as bad as today's.

In the modern era, presidential elections have seen majorities of non-voters. The non-voters are always a plurality. Every mid-term election, 2/3 majorities do not vote for Congress. In odd years, without federal elections, elections for state legislatures and governorships and mayoralties can draw even less than one-third. Primaries draw something like 4 to 12 percent of eligible voters. "We" are no longer participating in the farce, as you say. How much more of a majority do you expect for your "NOT VOTING" program before it shows some results? It is not widely interpreted as a rejection of the system, neither among voters nor most of the non-voters. Election winners have not been handicapped by low turnout. Non-voting is a non-issue. It's rarely mentioned. After every election, academic and opinion survey whores bless the final results as reflecting the will of the people, explaining that if everyone had voted, the results would still have been the same. I think that's untrue in several ways, but hardly anyone contradicts it. If you examine this, I think you'll realize that advocacy for not voting is a big nothing as a program for political action.

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Certainly valid points.

However, to clarify, I had the Presedential elections in mind when drafting my quoted comments above, not any mid-term/state-level elections, simply because the Presidential elections garner far more attention -- not just nationally, but certainly globally as well -- and as such any movement en masse would have a far more dramatic -- and global -- effect.

Allow me to also add the caveat here that -- as the full text of my quoted post alludes -- I have no real inclination to believe that such a movement can/would occur anytime soon, short of systemic collapse [which would render the the voting process moot anyway]; The People are simply not there yet... may never be.

Regardless, what I had in mind in my fanciful post was a sort of widespread, national "occupy the vote" movement, whereby the majority of citizens across the country would not only NOT VOTE, but also make clear their reasons for not voting [no faith in the system, influence of lobbyists advocating for the very few at the expense of the many, etc]. Such a movement would have reverberations not only Nationally, but Globally as well.

the non-voting you reference is performed largely in silence: the non-voters are generally not asked why they did not vote, other than some skewed 'spot'/gallup polls, and even then, one is only provided a list of ready-made responses to select -- which are then tallied and included in statistical polls/voting results. No protest by the non-voters.

If 75% or more [laughable, I know] of The People refused to vote in the upcoming Presidential Election -- and moreover made clear their reasons for doing so -- it just may cause some damage to the status quo.

But it would matter not in the long run. Those with money/power will simply find other means to control, even if the above hypothetical succeeded in any way. Again, short of an evolutionary shift in groupthink or complete system collapse [or the return of Quetzalcoatl], mass change will not occur without severe pain and loss.

Simplistic, to be sure. But there she is.

[various edits to typos, etc]

[Nordic]

It wouldn't matter. Even if nobody voted in the elections THEY WOULD STILL TELL US THAT WE HAD. And people would believe that WE HAD.

They constantly tell us what we think, every damn day. When we don't really think that.

They just make shit up. And most people believe it.

[Belligerent Savant]

^^^^^

Yep -- that too. Certainly in line with their modus operandi

[wordspeak2]

If a political party actually organizes a vote boycott and announces it formally, that's a real tactic and statement that usually gets heard and may have some effect. If a bunch of people just don't vote, instead of organizing a third party effort, in my opinion thats called laziness.

[Belligerent Savant]

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in my hypothetical above, it wouldn't simply be a non-vote, but a mass organized movement/protest along with it. I wouldn't call that laziness.

At any rate, matters not. It'll all get sorted out eventually, once humans evolve beyond the need of the few to control/induce fear. Perhaps several dozen lifetimes from now.

We'll be stardust well before that.

[Simulist]

If a political party actually organizes a vote boycott and announces it formally, that's a real tactic and statement that usually gets heard and may have some effect. If a bunch of people just don't vote, instead of organizing a third party effort, in my opinion thats called laziness.

Well, I don't know about that. I do agree with your point about announcing a non-vote formally though.

As far as I can tell, just about the only thing being a registered voter provably does is get you on the list for jury duty — and I absolutely refuse to sit in judgment over a fellow citizen (and quite possibly one who can't afford a decent lawyer to speak convincingly for his case) when I might not be able properly to weigh the integrity of the evidence against him.

So becoming unregistered — and therefore not voting — isn't necessarily an act of "laziness" at all; sometimes it's an act of principle.

[Belligerent Savant]

So becoming unregistered — and therefore not voting — isn't necessarily an act of "laziness" at all; sometimes it's an act of principle.

[eyeno]

If a political party actually organizes a vote boycott and announces it formally, that's a real tactic and statement that usually gets heard and may have some effect. If a bunch of people just don't vote, instead of organizing a third party effort, in my opinion thats called laziness.

Well, I don't know about that. I do agree with your point about announcing a non-vote formally though.

As far as I can tell, just about the only thing being a registered voter provably does is get you on the list for jury duty — and I absolutely refuse to sit in judgment over a fellow citizen (and quite possibly one who can't afford a decent lawyer to speak convincingly for his case) when I might not be able properly to weigh the integrity of the evidence against him.

So becoming unregistered — and therefore not voting — isn't necessarily an act of "laziness" at all; sometimes it's an act of principle.

Jury nullification is a forgotten aspect and the efforts to bury it are fierce.

[Simulist]

If "the juror" were renamed "the rubber stamp," the American criminal "justice" system might at least have more integrity by a tiny degree or two.

[Laodicean]

[Bruce Dazzling]

Count all the votes? What on earth for?????