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The United States of No-More-ica

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 24 April 2005
13 comments

Elections-Elected USA

The United States of No-More-ica

Largely, my opinions in the great political debates of America don’t matter. And equally largely, I don’t care. I’ve voted once in the last twenty years, and I can’t even remember when it was or for whom I voted. I make more than my fair share of political noise, but that’s simply my free choice. There are things I like about the United States, things I don’t particularly care for, and some things that I absolutely abhor. I still, to some degree, have the right to sound off on anything, a right of which I normally take full advantage.

The fact that I don’t vote does not deny me the right to object or complain, nor does it invalidate anything that I assert. Rather, it is an affirmation of one of my most basic beliefs - that until voting becomes mandatory, I have the right to reject all candidates and all proposals that are put before the public. In my view, the less time spent on politics and the passage of laws, the more time the American public would have on those other things guaranteed in our Constitution - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The idea of making voting a mandatory obligation is law in quite a few nations, though it would hardly be given lip service in the United States. Besides being nearly completely unenforceable, it would also be extremely unpopular. For instance, in the last presidential election, the one that was supposed to be the most important of our lifetime, about 42% of the American public decided not to engage in that particular folly at all.

According to any available figures (I used these), the number of people who didn’t vote vastly outnumbered those who cast their lots for either candidate. Here’s a breakdown:
Total eligible voters (according to the 2000 census, so the real figure is probably higher): 205,815,000
Bush: 62,028,772
Kerry: 59,026,150
Neither or Nobody: 84,760,078

The newspapers on the morning of November 3rd should have heralded the announcement: Nobody Won! and that nobody won handily. A large plurality of Americans once again soundly and overwhelmingly rejected the two party system, as they have for longer than anyone can remember.

Think about it. If a mere 5% of those people who didn’t show up decided to vote and went out and voted for Kerry, he’d be president, not George W. Bush. But I don’t actually believe that could have happened and will likely never happen. Those 84 million Americans who didn’t vote, didn’t because they just don’t care who wins. They probably have more interest in who wins the Super Bowl than they do the presidency. They likely wouldn’t vote even if you offered to pay them. They are the real silent majority, and they’re saying, and have been saying for some time, government is absurd, we don’t agree with most of what they do and we don’t want to be a party to any of it.

Of course, I’m making some pretty big assumptions about the non-voters of America, but I think I can speak for them in some regards, having been one of them for the better part of the last forty years. For instance, every time the government does anything, we would rather they not. Go to war? I don’t think so. Raise taxes? Uh-uh. Lower taxes? That might get a little interest, but to really get aroused the government would have to propose abolishing taxes!

There are issues that the washed or unwashed masses of non-voters might actually support. Tops on the list would be a massive reduction in the size of the federal government. If there was a proposal to cut the federal budget by 25% or more, I’d be out there rallying for it with all my heart. Likewise, if there were ever to come a day that a proposal to ban political reporting on television, I could go for that in a big way. We might then see more cartoons, or maybe even news that mattered to us.

But generally, these things will never occur. Big government, big media and big business will do what they like. And the 84 million (and their kids under 18) will largely ignore all of it because we consider most of it as a huge waste of time and energy. Thankfully, it’s not our time nor our energy.

Take, for instance, the work of Congress. Lately, they’ve intervened in a right-to-die issue (Terri Schiavo) in a way that 85% of the American public disagreed. 85%! Yet the Senators and Congresspeople and even the President went out and stuck their noses where they did not belong. If that isn’t a sure sign that government is broken and clueless and not worthy of our votes, then what is?

How about the endless debate over the so-called nuclear option of changing the rules of the Senate, to disallow filibusters in the confirmation of judicial appointments? This issue is so convoluted and demonstrably stupid that most Americans would rather the senators just do whatever it is they need to do and get on with it. And what is all the news coverage, debate and wrangling over? A couple of judges. Who cares? The chance that a ruling by any one of these judges would ever effect the lives of any of us is infinitesimal. Approve the judges. Move on.

But if the Congress isn’t wasting our tax dollars debating their own rules, they’re either playing politics, passing bills that are either detrimental to the general public or beneficial to big business, or, as is the case most of the time, passing legislation that accomplishes both. For perfect examples of how the legislature does this, take the recent passage of laws on bankruptcy, tort reform and the estate tax (passed by the House, soon to be before the Senate), and the no vote on raising the minimum wage.

And if you want to see government in all its wasteful, ill-conceived glory, just follow the President along to the "town meetings" (staged political events) on Social Security reform. The President’s plan for private accounts has been so much of a dead issue for so long the mainstream media doesn’t even bother to report on it anymore, yet he’s out there "on the stump", "doing the people’s business."

Hello, Mr. President! The people have completely rejected your idea, so you can stop wasting our time and our tax dollars. Besides, less than a third of us actually voted for you, so whatever business you’re doing for whomever people, it doesn’t apply to the majority.

And that’s why people don’t vote, and why I urge more people to resist voting. Only by proving that our elected officials do not represent us can we actually change the direction of our country. When the number of voters dwindles to less than 25% of those eligible to participate, maybe the politicians will get the message that they aren’t working for us, haven’t been working for us for many years, we don’t want them working for us, and they’ll just give up. I can only hope and wait for that day. In the meantime, let them go on passing their laws, spending more than we give them and generally wrecking the country along with its laws, its traditions and its constitution. When the entire weight of their mistakes finally comes crashing down around their ears, those of us who resisted the urge to vote for ANY OF THEM will be here to pick up the pieces and maybe start over again.

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Rick Gagliano is the publisher of Downtown Magazine, which focuses upon, among other things, sports, media, society, current events and the virtues of political abstinence.

Forum posts

  • Not voting makes no sense under normal circumstances, since the only way to democratically change a government is through the ballot box, regardless of of how few people vote. If, on the other hand, the vote is rigged, not voting en masse would make it easier to expose corruption. So as dumb as your suggestion appears on the surface, it actually is pretty intruiging.

    • Personally, I think that Rick is right, most especially concerning the last election, when most votes cast did not mean a thing, since they were not counted, miscounted, or simply wiped off the computer screen . The only way I could take interest in voting if the votes were cast on a piece of paper and counted, recounted and stored if there is a challenge. These computer disks do not mean a thing to me, as anyone knows how easy it is to alter data on them! Most countries in the world some with much greater populations than ours vote using a paper ballot. Australia used to use a preferential voting system, I don’t know if they still do, that was the most democratic vote on the planet, where voter marked his choices by numbers, so that even a loser who did not get enough votes, could get in using secondary and tertiary votes.Someone like Ralph Nader, could get in if he had enough secondary votes!

      Keep on trucking Rick, good article
      Amigocabal

    • It’s like they say ’’If voting changed anything, they’d abolish it’’ and ’’Whoever you vote for the government gets in’’. Surveys show that a lot more people would participate in the charade if there was a ’’none of the above’’ option to choose.

  • It makes the master’s job so much easier when his slaves WILLINGLY prefer to remain in the fieldhouse. Political inertia is not a choice. It is the result of sociological conditioning.

    • Not voting doesn’t have to be seen as political inertia. History shows the greatest number of changes to the fabric of any society comes firstly from political reform, and secondly from some form of direct action.

      When the US ’elections’ reveal the contempt they hold for their citizens and democracy generally by rigging, what faith are the electorate to have in further subterfuge ?

    • By simply filling in the box (and any box will do!) with a cross every few years you will get:

      1) Authoritarian government - A huge range of new laws, police powers and weaponry, constant surveillance of all your movements, a growing prison population, a clampdown on dissent and ever - increasing social control over all aspects of your life!

      2) Corrupt, greedy, lying, power hungry bosses and politicians - A self - serving bunch of parasites who will stop at nothing to hold on to power and their ruling class privilege. they want things to stay just as they are, with them at the top. They have nothing to offer normal people, but enjoy living off our taxes and hard work.

      3) Privatisation - It’s all gotta go! The selling off of public space and services for the profits of big business.

      4) Poverty - All government stands for keeping the fences up and the gap between haves and the have - nots. Whatever they say, all government means poverty on a massive scale. whether it’s Milwaukee or middle East..

      5) Violence and War - Government survives on conflict and war, keeping the flags flying, the war economy growing and distracting us with the "enemy". It gets us to fight and die in it’s wars for power and profit. The real enemy is governments everywhere and their capitalist string pullers who are literally calling the shots.

      6) Ecological destruction - Governments everywhere mean economic growth at all costs, which means accelerating climate change, masses of toxic waste and pollution spewing out of the military industrial complex.

      These are just a few of the things that voting helps to keep in place. the voting game is a well rehearsed trick to make us think we have a say, when all their decisions about our lives and future are in reality made behind closed doors, and security cordons. Let’s not let these bastards control us any more. It’s time to think outside the box, and work for change from the bottom up. Never mind the ballots.

    • "Direct action," and "work for change from the bottom up," without participation in democratic political institutions. Hmmm? Soiunds like lawlessness and rebellion that could lead to something far, far worse than what is in place right now. Personally, I think it’s all empty talk on the part of frustrated people who see themselves as disenfranchised. These grumblers would be the last ones to take to the streets. Those who reject the political process are mere spectators with nothing to offer and nothing to gain or lose.

    • Your quote: "Soiunds like lawlessness and rebellion that could lead to something far, far worse than what is in place right now."

      What’s now in place has given us higher taxes, out-of-touch legislators, stumbling economy, jobs going to foreign countries, US standards of living declining, higher gas prices, war in Iraq, dept. of homeland security (huge rip off), US is hated by most other people, massive corruption at all levels of govt., no accountability, rigged elections run by 3 private companies, should I go on?

      I ask, how much worse can it get?

    • It sounds like you’re ready for the barricades. I’ll be watching for you on the six o’clock news.

    • ’’without participation in democratic political institutions. Hmmm?’’ Are we talking of the 2000 or 2004 democratic political elections ?? Maybe it is just the grumblers and disenfranchised who would like to see direct action and violence against ’the system’. Why should the unelected leaders have a monopoly on violence just to further their own ends ? Left to them they want a passive populace who work and buy, consume then die.
      There’s more to life than that -like having a rant on Bellaciao!

    • If you have nothing to vote for how can you vote? US choice in election is Devil or deep blue sea. There’s a great song over here that goes along the lines of.... "the only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange things..." But, don’t worry any action against your government won’t make the six o’clock news... Not as long as the media are nothing but prostitutes hiring themselves out to the current power brokers. In many respects your journalists bear a great deal of the responsibility for the parlous state of democracy in your once great land. They lie, they do as they’re told by their political masters and they make vast sums of money through a monopolistic awarding of licences. Let’s face it, Bush could be caught on film by Fox rampaging through a childrens ward at the local hospital and they would show Michael Jackson’s trial instead.

    • Those who continue to participate in a corrupt system and support the murdering bastards in office are just as guilty as the criminal mafia in control of this country, only they don’t get any of the loot for being a stooge....is that you?

    • Remember Gandhi.....one person through non violent resistence can change a nation. Even in the Phillipines the people took back their government from their corrupt leaders who were backed and financed by the U.S., these simple people defeated a well armed dictator by simply refusing to go along with him any more. The people in this country have got to come out of their fox holes and be willing to find the courage to just say NO to this terrible government.