You dont believe, you know. America is not a pure democracy and it was never intended to be, thats why people have inalienable rights. In a real democracy, 51% of the people could take any rights they wanted to away from the other 49%, this is called the "tyranny of the majority", and the founders of the USA took careful steps to ensure that such things could never happen, by drafting the constitution and creating the electoral college (which has much less relevence in the communication age then it once did Imo). This is one of the reasons that I feel that people who allow themselves to be manipulated into becoming polarized by abjectly partisen rethoric are NOT true patriots, and would serve their country better by learning to think critically rather then simply reciting whatever "feels" good and treating their political affiliation much like a sports team rather then a group of representatives that should be held accountable to their words and deeds when in service of the public.
it can backfire, a few can oppose to something that would be good or needed for the whole country just because they are stubborn It is in my honest opinion that the bill of rights and the United States constitution have failed, the patriot act as one of the most publicly known examples, and some other less known but more important facts that i have addressed in another thread on this forum already separation of state and religion has been one important fact deeply embedded in your constitution and bill of rights, yet has failed in every direction, or who dares to deny that presidents publicly addressing the country end his speech with "may god bless you all"... clearly a constitution with the goal as you say is flawed if a president who dares to tactlessly say that at a time he is representing the country as a whole... and not the X% of Christians/Jews at that moment is tolerated ANYONES religion set aside, don't you think this is unworthy and discriminating, an insult and direct slap in the face even! to any religion that does not conform with 1 deity? or with atheism or non-theism, or any belief system (naturalism, new-ageism, Druidism etc... modern science even... that does not uphold "a god"?
Agreed, blizzerd. But I wouldn't go putting all the blame on the religion (even though a lot of it belongs there). The ideals behind our constitution and the bill of rights have been sold to the highest bidder. Corporate greed IS the new religion.
just giving my personal biased opinion here, based on stock market and politics watching for over 14 years educate me if you feel the need
are you shitting me? he is NOT a muslim. he's a christian. he has never been a muslim. i can't believe the number of people that believe that. mostly because of Mc Cains sly sniping that he's "not in touch with american lifestyle" and shit. don't think i'm supporting obama either i'm just saying.
That attitude behind that quote is the reason why the rest of the world, in average, dont like america anymore. (This and the fact that, with even a high crade education, they dont know shit about the rest of the world)
You should vote but mostly because of all the lesser legislation which (I assume from my politics classes) is also decided at the polls on election day. You have a congressperson and a 66% chance of voting for a senator. At least in Canada each vote gives a small amount of money to the party you vote for, to help them in the next election (and make them less reliant on corporate money). That way, even if your vote won't make a huge difference, at least you have a small practical form of support
Obama isn't going to win the election, no matter what anyone thinks. His steam is beginning to run out, and the republicans are very good at winning elections. Look at the 2004 election, everyone thought the dems had that in the bag, but they chose idiotic runners, like this year, and lost.
Quite frankly, voting and jury duty are the basic foundations of our democratic republic form of government. I feel they should both be mandatory with a punishment of having your citizenship revoked if you don't comply. If your not willing to do the bare minimum to keep the country going, then you don't deserve the rights and privileges that go with citizenship.
Well that's how you feel it should be and this.. Is how I feel it should be, but unfortunately it's not and probably never will.
Cons - Obama - socialist hack who wants to send our money to foreign countries to starving people(without realizing their government is corrupt and will pocket it), wants to force businesses to employ who he wants them to employ(without realizing this will worsen the economy by sending prices up because business will be making much less) and then fine them if they don't, and increase the size of government...Is also chicken shit about how he pounces around the patriot act issue. increase taxes(to pay for more government spending. universal healthcare IS NOT FREE, AND WILL NOT BE AS GOOD AS SMALLER, INDEPENDENT HEALTH(Use FEMA as an example of how well the government will work for you)) Mccain - Won't withdraw troops from Iraq, his stances on social issues are pretty stupid, and is just another faceless politician...that, and he passed a god damn bill that makes it harder to find POW's...asshole Pros - Obama - Promises to get us out of Iraq(lol promises and not commitments) 1st black president(shouldn't really matter though), Mccain - Lower taxes, cut government spending, and says no to torture(I actually fucking loved he said that) Issues that don't really matter in terms of voting(to me, but are important) - Guns. The majority of politicians will not vote against guns because they will most likely not be re-elected Social issues - IE gay marriage, Abortion, etc... These are things that take time to be accepted and what not. I don't really care about gay marriage, or abortion as in I am not against them. Also, with the democratic congress, these issues will probably not get turned against. ---------------------------------- As for some issues I want to talk about - Oil and big business - Everyone needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP. Oil and Big business drives the economy. If you want to solve the problem, remove all of the fucking money the government GIVES to them. Less government intervention = less monopolization of the industries. Guns - Love em, hate em, they are part of American culture(and they are our right to own) Don't want one? fine. But if you take try to take them away from me, remember, I have a gun, and you have...a stick...or something... Abortion - I'm pro-life AND pro-choice. I don't think we should have to have abortions, but we live in a world with victims of rape, incest, and some women could die from complications. Also, it is a women's body, and she can do with it what she wants. (Although I am against anything after a 2-3 moneths of pregnancy, because I personally consider an unborn child to be a human being when they develope their brain and nervous-system. Our sentience is what makes us and without that, then you are nothing) Socialism - No I actually have more respect for avair...wow I sent $100 to his campain. I'm highly displeased with how his staff handled their adds. His problem was, he was trying to win by using the same tactics he did in Texas(for congressmen). Oh well, I still love the guy, and hopes he keeps fighting for the cause. ------- Personally, I'm 2/3rds republican(old school republican) I'm conservative on Economic, and Diplomatic issues, but I am socially liberal.
Voting for President is just one out of two dozen or more candidates/positions that you vote for during an election. They range from congressional to local and can include such things as tax/levies, city council/mayor, etc that DIRECTLY affect you and where your vote actually does count. Sure, the Electoral College system sucks, but it won’t be changed by not voting. Until 1913, it was the state legislature, not the people, who elected their U.S. Senators. The best part is that if you hate all of the candidates, you can write in whoever you want (I expect Ron Paul will get quite a few votes this way). Bottom line is that there are zero legitimate excuses for not voting in a country that has relatively free and fair elections with such an easy voting process (My state has permanent absentee voting, so my ballot is mailed directly to my house ) Come on and admit it HSM, you’re a libertarian who just can’t bring himself to vote for Bob Barr Also, here are some good polling/analysis websites that I’ve been following for the election. They generally do a good job of aggregating and correctly analyzing polls/trends/etc. http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ http://realclearpolitics.com/ http://pollster.com/
I'll vote for a Libertarian if the Libertarian candidate has his name on the ballot of every state. That, and if the libertarian party unifies.
