Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy
I am not an independent, nor am I registered to vote. I made that decision while serving my country. I am not a Trump supporter, nor a Biden supporter.
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Happy:
First of all, I believe that anyone who is currently or has in the past, served in any capacity in our armed forces, deserves from all of us Americans who have not served, our collective expressed appreciation, thanks and gratitude for their decision, commitment and service. So I pass along my sincere thank you....
Yet, for someone who claims to be a disabled veteran, I am quite perplexed in your admission that you are not registered to vote and therefore, presumably did not vote in last fall’s presidential election and possibly many earlier elections. Why did you choose to not participate?
I am very disappointed, as well as saddened by any and all American citizens who are physically and mentally able to vote, yet have consciously decided to withdraw from our political system by deciding not to vote. Here are some poignant thoughts on this topic by a variety of highly regarded people:
“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet” – Abraham Lincoln
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors" - Plato
“Not voting is not a protest; it is a surrender…” - Keith Ellison
“Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it” – Susan B. Anthony
“The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“There is no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter” - Barack Obama
“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote” - George Jean Nathan
“If you don’t vote, you lose your right to complain” – George Carlin
FYI, I have strong feelings about actively participating and voting as a vitally important part of the process of practicing our democratic principles in order to maintain our constitutional republic. I think that in one sense, these non-voting citizens are intellectual cowards who believe that their vote does not count and therefore they will not make any difference. They deserve whatever happens to them since they had a chance to influence who runs our government at all levels, that makes the decisions and choices of policies, laws and legislation that affects all of us. These lazy, ignorant imbeciles are an embarrassment to the United States and should just move to another country to live. Their narrow-mindedness is appalling to all of us who realize that we cannot afford to take our liberties for granted. They fail to realize or remember that America’s democratic government, society and way of life has been something that hundreds of thousands of Americans fought for, beginning in the Revolution through the Civil War, and both World Wars, sacrificing with their lives to achieve, maintain and preserve our form of government and its resulting freedoms. It is an insult to their ultimate supreme sacrifice for what they did to not exercise not only our constitutional right, but our civic duty. So, I say “buck up you Bozos…” Take the time to think, read, learn and use your brain to formulate an opinion, make a choice and decision and finally vote in our elections.
Though voting ostensibly remains a right instead of a privilege, many current voter ID laws have drastically curtailed people’s ability to simply vote for the leader of their choosing under the guise of fighting the effectively nonexistent large-scale voter fraud. IMHO, we do need to revisit our approach to elections and modify existing voter/election laws to make it easier, fairer and more secure against any potential illegal tampering, manipulation or hacking of vote counts. I am a proponent for a rational, logical national uniform voter registration process and system that is easy, safe and that will ensure that only those who are truly eligible to vote do in fact vote. I do believe that all Americans, in every state should be required to show either a state or federally issued accepted form of identification with a photo, in order to register to vote. Yet, part of the current problem is that many states requiring IDs to vote have such wildly inaccurate voter records that many people end up turned away at the polls, in some cases, when their home address information had not changed since the previous election.
The reasons why the United States has reached this new low in the public’s confidence in fair elections are complex. I think part of the larger problem is the realization and acceptance that those currently in power, the establishment, will always do what it feels it needs to do to ensure its rulers always win. In other words, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and that the ends justify the means.
To that point, Republicans currently control most of the state legislatures and therefore can determine their respective State’s election voting districts and processes and procedures. They have very effectively gerrymandered these districts to favor Republicans on the ballot, even if the majority of the state’s population votes for the Democrat candidates. In addition, while once for, they are now against mail-in-voting, have reduced the number of polling locations in their densely populated urban centers, reduced early voting, instituted voter ID laws at the polls, blocked college students from voting, and even have encouraged people to vote twice! One of the most blatant attempts to help themselves was last year’s changes in workday rules at all U.S. Post Offices, by the Republican political appointee Postmaster General. While changing this will be an uphill battle, it needs to change in order to make our elections fair.
In the months and years to come, will Republicans continue to pursue the strategy of voter suppression or come to terms and accept that the evolving shifting of the demographics of U.S. citizens may very well require a new strategy of outreach and inclusion. We will see……
AVB-AMG