Please don't vote...

[VulcanRider]

"If you're still undecided about whom you're going to vote for this late in the game, please just don't vote, because it's obvious that the still-undecided voters are immature when it comes to viewing government. If you're voting against someone, don't vote. If a politician is defined by being against another candidate, we'll all come to a dead end when one of the candidates is eliminated. If you're voting to get free stuff – such as health care, education, welfare, etc. – don't vote, because you're responsible for the impending fiscal disaster. If you're voting just to vote, don't vote, because you're responsible for electing crooked politicians."

Interesting words from a 15 year old columnist...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=40959

[shamrock_uk]

Someone needs to explain to him that the vote is important because it's the only way a democratic government can gain a resemblence of legitimacy. Rather essential [img]smile.gif[/img]

Although his comments on uneducated voting I liked and agree with. Still, grown up too fast I think!

[Stratos]

To be able to choose your leader and affect politics is a rare privilege, if we look at history. The thing is, political decisions will be taken regardless of what. Voting one of the few ways most of us can have any impact on these desicions.

[Stratos]

I find it strange that on one hand, he calls undecided voters immature (is this the old fence sitters=weak willed wimps crap?), and on the other proclaims the importance of an educated voter. Perhaps the undecided voters were busy educating themselves?

Anyway, I see at the bottom of the page that Kyle Williams also writes at OklahomaConservative.com so I assume he don't want people to vote Bush out of office.

[Aerich]

Interesting opinion piece, although it does not contemplate the fact that people vote for many different reasons. It's a political fiction that everyone who votes for a party supports the entirety of the party's platform.

I'll highlight one section of the article that I didn't agree with at all.

If you're voting to get free stuff – such as health care, education, welfare, etc. – don't vote, because you're responsible for the impending fiscal disaster. If you're voting just to vote, don't vote, because you're responsible for electing crooked politicians. A new generation is rising up that has this idea in its collective mind that voting is inherently good. In reality, an uneducated vote cast is evil.

Seems quite obviously elitist. Why not vote to get free stuff? If a person is in a poor economic/social situation, why not vote for a person who might be able to change it? (Note that this comment is intended as theoretical, not as endorsement for Kerry or Bush. I have my doubts about whether either candidate has a meaningful idea that isn't connected to the economy or the foreign policy) A cynic would say that the return on a vote is in direct proportion to a person's power and the strength of his/her connection to the election winner.

It's also a pretty big logical leap to say the uneducated voter is responsible for "impending fiscal disaster" and "electing crooked politicians." That's a lot of power for one little vote. And last time I looked, the politicians set fiscal policy AND are responsible for whether or not they are crooked.

[Lucern]

I'm glad he thinks the environment, health care, and education are on par with voting for your dog and your mom in their ridiculousness.

He has a book already, that is "offering clear evidence that a leftist agenda is at work in our nation." He's a young Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. Isn't that cute?

His elitism belies an ignorance of the fact that the more educated one is, the more likely one is to support liberal ideas, statistically. He does seem aware, somewhere under that buzz cut, that younger voters are currently more likely to support Kerry (if they can be bothered to vote).

EDIT: Sorry if my own condescension irks anyone, but he IS a (freshman or sophomore) high-schooler (condescendingly) talking about the vast uneducated American youth.

[ 10-17-2004, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

[aleph_null1]

Originally posted by Lucern: EDIT: Sorry if my own condescension irks anyone, but he IS a (freshman or sophomore) high-schooler (condescendingly) talking about the vast uneducated American youth.

Come on, Lucern, you know that you were exactly like that I know I was...

I've actually found that I'm becoming more conservative with more schooling & experience... and my friends seem to be responding the same way.

[shamrock_uk]

Lol, that's interesting. My economics tends to be quite right-wing the more I study it, whilst my foreign policy has been gravitating to the left the more I study international affairs.

That kid also seems to lack some recent history, given that it's usually the conservatives who are the most fiscally-irresponsible and therefore not conservative in their economic policies, whilst the democrats are usually constrained by the size of the deficit left them and consequently spend most of their time paying it off and not carrying out their spending plans.

An interesting situation, and one that suits the republican party quite well I should imagine [img]smile.gif[/img]

[krunchyfrogg]

I agree with the kid. If you don't care, or aren't responsible enough to decide for yourself which is the better candidate, stay home and don't vote.

[Lucern]

Come on, Lucern, you know that you were exactly like that I know I was...

Lol..Unfortunately that's true. It was probably even worse for me and anyone else who went to a private school. Talk about arrogant brats. It would be a shame if we never grew out of it, or at least weren't able to identify the irony/hypocracy in our situations! [img]smile.gif[/img]

However, we didn't have a book and a column lol. At least I didn't. We're looking at an extreme with a healthy dose of adult encouragement.

I've actually found that I'm becoming more conservative with more schooling & experience...

My economics tends to be quite right-wing the more I study it...

Certainly, it's possible to go the other way (if it's really directional), even among PhDs with post-docs under their belt. As for me, and lots of my friends, we slowly discarded the inborn Texas conservatism that we were brought up with. Some never budged an inch.

None of that matters though because statistically it's still very much the case that the more years (not saying quality mind you) of education one has had, the more likely one is to identify oneself as liberal or Democrat. I get this from statistical analysis of the GSS (General Social Survey) - a bi-annual (sometimes) survey of a rather random sample of Americans. Can't make any claims about other nations though.

We can't make predictions about individuals, only general trends in the population. Through all this, though, it's clear that education has the power to change our ideas about the world around us. Whichever way we lean, we probably have much better reasoning attached to it.

I'd also like to point out how relevent Shamrock's signature is to this thread. [img]smile.gif[/img]