Each generation
has become progressively more disgusted with the political process, and it’s no wonder. The trouble is, removing yourself from the process means that the process becomes rife with retards, the corrupt, and the rent seeking.
This is the legacy we leave our children: A land worse than we found it.
Every boyscout knows: “Take only pictures. Leave only footprints” Every farmer knows his livlihood depends on maintaining and if possible improving the land, and not destroying it. Good hunters are by their nature conservationists, doing the things required to make the hunting better next year, and the year after that, and so on.
Why do we not feel the same husbandry towards our nation? Why are we content to allow our political process be despoiled and do nothing to change it? The nature of the process is to change, and it has done so, slowly, evolving through the years into something th founders would not recognize. If you don’t like this, what are you doing about it? Do you honestly think that doing nothing will improve anything? If you don’t make every effort to increment back- even the tiniest amount- why on earth would you think that it will be easier next time?
IN climbing, gravity and weakness are formidable enemies. Imagine you’re up a wall that you’re trying to climb, and you take the last piton off your carrier, and you notice it’s worn, the eye almost worn through, it was cheaply made, the wedge hardly has any wedge, the metal soft and easily bent. Do you just drop back down to the last piton by default, because it”s better to fall than to be supported by something weak? it’s a long fall that could be fatal. No, you drive that piton in where you can, and you use the small breathing room it gives you to cast about for better holds. That’s what we got, an inappropriate cleat that we don’t want- but not driving it home is going to result in things getting worse.
Every day you should ask yourself what you can do to fix this shit. Just going about your business isn’t making anything better, and as Wingnuthead has threatened, it won’t result in anyone’s prosperity.
Not one person has come forward with a solid argument that shows how not voting will fix a damned thing. So far, every explanation has been pique and ego. “They’re not getting MY vote, I’ll show those bastards!” Those bastards aren’t afraid that you won’t vote, they’re afraid that you will. You not voting fills them with unmitigated glee. As for me, I’m driving the piton in the rock, and hanging on, and using everything I have to find a better way. I don’t see how the nobility of dangling at the end of a rope, helpless, is somehow morally superior. I’ll take survival over submission every day.
43 comments Og | Uncategorized
I posted this in a similar comment thread over at SayUncle. There had been many folks posting “It’s my right to bitch, even if I don’t vote!”, and “I can complain, because YOU guys keep choosing the ‘lesser evil’.” So, while some of the words feel a little strong for your conversation, which has been civil and has men whose opinions I generally respect, I repost here:
“It is a statistical certainty that the next POTUS will be either: Mitt Romney (R), or Barack Obama (D). Like it or not, that’s facts.
At this point the election is between two men, described above as “slower slide†or “express elevator†to hell. I’d like to be on the slower slide long enough to have a chance to get some acceptable candidates in future elections.
The time to make your voice heard on what is an acceptable candidate is NOW, and leading up to the 2016 Primaries. Your voice is NOT your vote in the general election. Your voice is NOT the internet (unless you’re doing it systematically and actually trying to influence real people, not “readersâ€).
Your voice is YOU actually engaging with the local parties’ offices. Your voice is convincing them that they should care what YOU want. If you can’t convince them, then TAKE OVER the local parties. It doesn’t take millions of votes to change local political machines, it usually take tens, or hundreds. Maybe a thousand. Contact the candidate you find “most acceptable†and ask them to run, but be prepared to offer your help in getting them elected.
Don’t do that, and you retain your right to bitch, you retain your right to complain, but you do NOT retain the honor of the word “citizenâ€, only “residentâ€. You’ll retain actual citizenship, but might as well be a European with European comments on the U.S. Constitution. Apparently you understand it approximately the same way they do.”
Good one. Now if some of the non voters will actually, like, vote.
My wife and I joined the county Republican party. We live in a small, rural county and the party was small and a bit dysfunctional. We hung in there and by just showing up and showing a bit of competence, we have been elected officers. The group is growing and the really encouraging thing is that the members are almost all small government, Constitutional conservatives. Gives me hope. Virginia (to our shame) is a swing state this year, so we need to motivate people get out there and vote. Turnout is going to be essential to counter the urban vote. What’s my point? Get involved. Being around like-minded people starts a positive feedback loop which produces change. At the very least, we will go down fighting.
Lien: thanks.
Like you, I’ll be holding my nose and pushing the button for Mitt, but with considerable disgust.
I think the problem most right-leaning (Conservative, Classic Liberal, Libertarian, whatever) people have is in the type of people who seek elected office. People run for office because they LIKE being in a position to tell other people what to do, they LIKE spending money they didn’t have to work for. A big part of the problem is that political office becomes a career. When you can have some schmuck with no particular talent who can get elected to Congress every two years for DECADES there’s a problem. Maybe term limits would help, maybe selecting Congressmen at random (like we do now with jury duty) would work.
For every person who runs for office out of sincere desire to make the nation better (and there are a few) there’s a dozen who wring their hands at the prospect of the power and pull. If public office was viewed more like jury duty, an unpleasant but necessary task in a free society, maybe we’d all be better off.
What if I don’t vote for who you think I should? Isn’t that really what you’re po’d about, I won’t commit to vote the way you think I should?
What if I write in or vote for someone even further down the list of evils? Will that make you happy?
The truth is the state I vote in will send all of its electoral votes to D.C. to vote for whoever the republican candidate is, no-matter who I vote for. It is a statistical certainty if one ever existed.
Another certainty AFAIC is that a Mr. Romney administration will not accomplish or do anything substantially different than another Mr. Obama administration will. Look at how many elected “Tea-Party” candidates are casting votes to accelerate the economic destruction. You think Romney and whatever congress and senate he has will do anything different? /rant
Patrick. Never in the history of the blog has anyone missed the point so utterly.
You’re working from bad assumptions. Half of the people are stupider than the other half. They always have been stupider but they weren’t always allowed to all vote.
You can try to fix it but as long as we are allowed to vote ourselves a piece of someone else’s pie, it will not be fixed. At least half the people will always vote that your pie be consumed first.
The only way it gets fixed is if people start voting for the guy that says he will do the least for you. Vote for me! I’ll let your roads crumble and your bridges rust because I will refuse to appropriate other people’s money for you! That’s what’s good for the country and you know it!!
It ain’t going to happen.
Mr Lien, I add my thanks to Mr. Ogs. Mr. Og, that’s the kind of “holding office” I have been considering; local borough, local Republican committee; etc. I still may not be qualified, but it’s all I can think to do.
FWIW, I vote, keep voting, and try to scrape up some money for the guys I would like to see in office. They rarely get elected, but the money is by no means wasted.
Thanks for the post.
Tony: youve demonstrated yourself to be one of the people who cause the trouble, not prevent it. I would prefer you not run for any office, myself. Arcs: really? Dont bogart that.
I can see the draw not to vote- not when things keep getting worse despite voting. And I don’t fault them for it.
But what’s real runny about this post is that there IS a movement that could turn this county around. One that could save the country from economy collapse and totalitarian systems. One that is full of people of all races, religions, and ages. One that has mobilized the young to get out and vote. One that is trying to change the Republican party from inside. One that gets out and votes.
And that’s the Ron Paul movement. One you dismiss because of your own biases and incorrect beliefs.
I find that hilarious.
Oh, yes, we will all be living in palaces of gold when the paul is in control!
Really, dude, dont bogart it.
Voting does not measurably fix anything more than not voting. What am I doing to “fix” things? Live the best, worthwhile life I can and help others around me who do the same everyday. I’m pretty much exhausted and spent most of the time just trying to accomplish that.
Everything else is a snipe hunt.
Whoooooooooosh! That, Patrick, was the point wizzing by way over your head.
Apparently I didn’t understand what you meant by driving that pivot into the rock. I thought it was some clever metaphor for voting.
you have demonstrated very effectively that you read the words that i wrote, but ignored them and responded to the voices in your head. Its all much easier if you try to keep up with the discussion.
Maybe you should re-read what you wrote. You sure seem to be complaining about people who don’t vote when you write things like “Those bastards aren’t afraid that you won’t vote, they’re afraid that you will. You not voting fills them with unmitigated glee.”
How can you write that, then claim my statements about “Voting does not measurably fix anything more than not voting” are the point whooshing over my head? Is there some inside joke I’m not privy to?
Yes, its called reason. I know its an undiscovered country for you.
Used to, when I was a mere child driving around gravel roads of western Ky, it was easy to tell exactly where county commissioners lived. The clue was the blacktopped portion of an otherwise completely gravel road.
Do you think that has changed or will ever change? It’s older than history, Og, and as long as it happens, you cannot fix the system by voting.
Well, you’ve obviously achieved a level of reasoning beyond my motivation to meaningfully participate.
Arcs: if that is the way you choose, then no, it will never change. Hint: for change to occur, it requires action.
Patrick: that is of course, obvious.
[…] No, really, do that. Og explains why you should be active in the political scene, in a post that inspires me. If we don’t do at least this, the picture up there is inevitable. […]
Og, I’m a recent convert from progressive liberalism, starting about ten years ago.
I’ve been struggling with the appropriate response to the coming storm.
You’re helping.
What I’m thinking is, my vote, in itself, will not save the nation. What voting and related activity does is to bolster the voter’s faith in his position.
I’m a recent convert to Christianity, too. Going to church, taking communion, doesn’t make me holy, doesn’t save my soul, doesn’t, in itself, even make me a better person. (At least, not yet. It’s only be a few months.)
What it does is remind me what I’m trying to do, and to be.
Voting, I think, is the political equivalent of communion.
DJ. Take your understanding even further than you’ve come. There is no Left or Right. There is only love of Life which is only one fine way to show gratitude to Him. A good start.
What you are rebelling against is a mindset in the leadership which believes they are behaving morally by eliminating the notion that human life is sacred. All else they do then makes sense and has helped, at least for me, to understand what sort of monster I have been fighting.
What you just wrote reminded me that Og’s encouragement has helped me move past despair and to keep on trying. I sometimes do not know what Og is really up to. I don’t need to. Only that his tug of war with me seems to have worked to my satisfaction.
Welcome to the fight.
I hope that “climbing” paragraph gets spread far & wide on the web.
There are WAY too many folk, who I otherwise admire for their published thoughts, who are advocating “not vote” or “thrown vote” method.
Last, imperfect piton, indeed.
Heinlein wrote a book which explained in great detail how a grassroots movement can actually make a difference.
Take Back Your Government is the title. It’s out of print and hard to find, hence the asking price of $120.
Which is a crying shame.
I’ve gotta find my copy of it and reread it, damn it.
Og, dear friend: you can’t run a cogent discussion by accusing everyone with a different analysis of “missing YOUR point”.
Some of us might have enough grey matter to derive our OWN points from the data.
My point being: the society is beyond lost. Our duty now is to pick a side and enlist for the coming fight. Of course, I assume there are those on the side of Good who WILL fight…
Except, of course, when they have; everyone is free to talk about what they want, on their own blog. Here, its my discussion.
Fun with analogies! (Google the word, it’s ok, we’ll wait….)
Preferred choice:
Filet Mignon
Actual choices:
Dried out Salisbury steak
or
Pile of maggot infested, rancid pig shit.
I’ll choke down the so called meat, as unpalatable as it is, before I willingly consume vermin infested scat out of idiotic spite.
BTW: Ron Paul may be a footnote on the menu, but in reality he’s not even in the kitchen (nor will he ever be).
lol. Grau, it always amuses me how the paulites think. Everyone is so stupid they don’t recognize his genius, and those same everyone are so smart they are capable of unassisted self government.
Mr. Lien,
Thank you.
Mr. Kelly,
Quick: Name your county commissioners.
(…and yes, I’ll probably throw my vote as a futile gesture on the election for POTUS. It’s the election where my vote matters least, anyway.
I’ll be too busy studying up on the races way down-ballot to care.)
Og, I guess maybe you’re a little too open-minded on these things. I wasn’t writing about choosing a commissioner by the condition of the road in front of his house. I was writing about the Human nature that is corruption. That’s what paved the road in front of the proverbial commissioner’s place.
“I’ll be too busy studying up on the races way down-ballot to care.)”
Exactly. it’s a shame the only people who get this are the people who don’t need any reaching.
“I was writing about the Human nature that is corruption.”
So the whole thing wooshed by you too, did it? Damn.
“Oh, yes, we will all be living in palaces of gold when the paul is in control!”
Nobody said that. Nobody said Paul’s vision is a utopia. But its the highest and best political goal out there.
And I like how you sidestepped my point.
“And I like how you sidestepped my point. ”
You have missed the point of the entire post; every word you have posted here is a blatant non sequitur of the original discussion. I won’t follow the trail of the voices in your head, you’ll have to deal with them yourself.
[…] Update: Og from Neanderpundit and Aretae have some very insightful responses. They’re both a lot smarter than me. Posted by Robert Hewes at 10:36 am Uncategorized Add comments […]
[…] And… well, those are the only differences I can think of. They both make me sick, but one is clearly a lesser evil than the other, and, contra passivism, evil is to be opposed when possible. (Of course, if I had any desire for power, I’d force myself into passivism; but I’d really rather just fish, and the only reason I do anything more is that I can’t not speak out against immediately visible displays of utter idiocy.) […]
Anyone who says a vote doesn’t count. I got three words for them….
Lee Harvey Oswald.
Like the result or not,
He Voted.
And It Counted.
Ouch. True enough, but not the kind of ballet I’m anxious to cast.
…. and it’s John B for the WIN :-)
Voting caused this horrifying political environment so obviously more voting will do what?
A: Make it worse?
B: Make it better?
Elections: Where groups of lazy people with very low intellect get to choose criminals to steal stuff for them.
The only surprise about the demise of democracy is why it took so long to fail.
So: we should let the idiots keep on deciding so we can whine when it just gets worse, i see. Well thought out answer, Don.