My Name is Jason and I disapprove of US Government
 

I think that having to choose between the lesser of 2 evils every election is completely ridiculous. So here's my solution. DON'T vote. How many America's don't vote on election day. I think that's a very legitimate question that dose not get addressed. If the majority of people in America don't vote then apparently government is not doing it's job. The democrats want the middle class and the republicans want the top 1 percent. But who is standing up for the poor?? No one, I am a very poor person and my family is very poor. Every election year I have to hear all this non sense that means nothing to me and no one is concerned with what I have to say. So I go on the net and speak my mind and no one really pays attention. I get this bs from the preachers that "no weapon" forged against me will prosper. ANd everyone thinks I'm stupid. So the only way for my voice to be heard is to just write renegade poetry and rebel. I dunno maybe I'm a fool but maybe I have a point. What do you think??

qcc??

That's a plan, but I don't see how it's a solution. What does it solve JBK? How does it solve what you say it solves?

I have another question.

With respect to your poverty and your family's poverty, what do you want or expect from our government, regardless of party labels?

Note: this was slowly composed on my phone and I haven't read bigv' comments yet. This post was to jbk.

I disagree.

You can go to a voting booth and find at least one issue that means something to you, or one candidate who isn't completely abhorrent. You vote for that one thing. Only then will your civil commentary mean anything.

Not picking any of the choices is a choice itself. I've done it. But I had a ballot cast, so my nonvote meant something.

I don't think it solves anything but if the majority dose not vote then we can all agree that we have a legitimate problem. The biggest problem in American government is that no one agrees with each other.

I expect it to be morally correct.

Yes that sounds like a solution.

If the moderates do not vote, the extremists are in control.

Do you realize how hard certain groups of people have worked over the years simply to have the ability to vote? Minorities, women, poor people/non-land owners, and AMERICANS in general vs. colonists of Britain??? And you're just gonna not bother voting 'cause none of the issues or candidates is a perfect paragon of idealism?

Fine. We're better off that way. If more clueless people stayed home on election day, the results might be more productive. As for me, I've made up my mind - and I WILL be at the voting booth.

Staying home and doing nothing is NOT the way to elicit change. You don't like what's out there? Get off your ass and work for something better. Volunteer for political action groups. Make phone calls to raise campaign contributions for Mr. Unknown (who will continue to be unknown if his supporters just say meh, why bother). Write letters to the less-than-ideal candidates and elected officials. Organize boycotts and demonstrations. DO something.

I might not agree with everyone who does something to effect political change, but I have deep respect for those who DO IT instead of just whining about it.

kick his ass Juniper!

I support Ron Paul personally. It's just that poor people are generally "uneducated" and that's my problem. Really, I just trust God and usually vote for whoever my conscious tells me to. Not vote-ing is just a way to say that you don't support anyone. If enough people got together and said they were fed up with politics and were not going to vote, we might just have a third party. Like the Green party or something.

Third parties have never been more than "spoilers" for one of the two major political candidates.

And they never will be. It's just the way our political system is set up. Vote for one of the two major political party candidates, or your vote is wasted. (it has some value as a measure of support for the 3rd party platform, but any poll would be just as valuable)

They say "to change your fortunes, change your thoughts", and they're quite right.

There ARE ways to get out of poverty, but you probably won't learn them from poor relatives or friends, or writing rebel poetry. If they knew how to do it, they'd have done it, right?

It may not seem like getting a better education or training, and eventually getting a better job, is the way to go --

But it is. It takes time, and it takes a lot of work, but that's what it takes. Also, you have to be smart about your money. Watch your finances like a hawk! :cool:

Crikey me, I agree with Adak for most of that post.

You know what would fix the political system?

Alternative vote/instant runoff, and proportional representation for all parties who earn at least five percent of the vote, instead of first-past-the-post voting.

That was a great post.

And the ideas behind it might work, if politicians wanted to actually help America, as opposed to furthering their own agendas, which very rarely have the good of America in mind.

BTW, I've said this before, I think.

We should be able to vote against people. You'd get one 'for' vote, and then you could vote 'no way in hell' against everyone else. Or you could just say "insertnamehere?" 'Oh, hell no'.

If the 'agin' votes outnumber the 'fer' votes, that feller is shit outta luck.

"... and so I declare candidate Z, with minus 18 million votes, being the smallest negative number of votes, to be the winner ..."