Does voting matter ?

[Modelworks]

I was talking to some neighbors today and most of them were saying they would not vote.
I asked them why and they replied that "It did not matter".
"politicians have never done anything for me"
"Ill get screwed over no matter who I vote for, so why bother"

In some ways I agree.
If I stop and try to think of what has changed in my life due to someone in washington making a decision, there really isn't anything.

Do you think that Americans are just getting apathetic about government ?

 

[Chiropteran]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/magazine/06freak.html

The truth is, economically voting doesn't make sense, but people do it to look good. So really, it doesn't matter, except so far as people will look down on you if you don't vote.

 

[SSSnail]

No.

 

[FoBoT]

anyone that doesn't know why they should vote, shouldn't vote

 

[CADsortaGUY]

For the people who complain that "politicians have never done anything for me" - yes, voting doesn't matter but that's the problem. We should be voting "for me", it's why we are in the fiscal mess we are in. The older generations have voted themselves the treasury because they wanted them to "do for me".

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
anyone that doesn't know why they should vote, shouldn't vote

A pleasant non-answer that doesn't respond to any of the economic, philosophical or practical reasons why an individual's vote doesn't really matter.

That said, I vote, but I'm aware it doesn't change anything, especially in my state which is in no way a swing state.

 

[jjones]

I encourage people to not vote. I wish more would listen.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: jjones
I encourage people to not vote. I wish more would listen.

Thats an interesting idea really.

I wonder if big government would take notice if people just decided not to vote at all till some of this crap was sorted out.

 

[Fern]

Does voting matter ?

Individually? Prolly no

Collectively? Yes.

Read the thread on girls who do math, and you'll see why I sometimes don't care if others don't vote. Makes my vote count more.

Disinterested poeple not voting, it's kinda like the dumb self-ejecting from the political process. Might be a good thing.

Fern

 

[Kadarin]

It depends.... Is Diebold planning on fudging the vote count again?

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: Fern
Makes my vote count more.

Fern

Count for what exactly? More of the same?

 

[Fern]

1 out of 50 million counts more than 1 out of 100 million (mathematically anyway)

Fern

 

[Vic]

Without question, voting matters. But you have to keep in mind that you're just 1 vote out of 100+ million. So when it doesn't work out they way YOU want it to, that's proof that we do live in a democracy, and not the opposite.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: jjones
I encourage people to not vote. I wish more would listen.

Thats an interesting idea really.

I wonder if big government would take notice if people just decided not to vote at all till some of this crap was sorted out.

About as much as cancer would notice if we stopped searching for the cure. The illogic of your suggestion is breathtaking, a word I haven't used in years.