Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Who have you convinced to vote today?

Vekseid

Most imposing inkwell.
Administrator
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
According to my statistics, between Blue Moon and Elliquiy, roughly one thousand members and two thousand daily visitors are American.

So I'm going to abuse my position, and hopefully the foreigners here will forgive my moment of indiscretion.

I am quite sure that each and every member here has heard the call to vote at least once. Some of you have already voted.

Others of you probably declare that voting is a meaningless gesture. You could highlight, for example, McCain's economic advisers and note how closely some of them worked with the worst on Obama's team.

But we're not dealing with a coherent conspiracy, here. "O'Donnell is a witch!" ... please. I think most of us find her stance on masturbation far more worrying. Hopefully Americans will get tired of "Be afraid!" and "React to this!" soon.

Voting today - and getting others to vote today - is less about making a difference at the immediate moment and, instead, making a habit for the future. I'm going to be more proactive about party primaries in the future, and possibly seeing what difference we can make there.

To anyone who has been even slightly considering taking a leadership role, I would suggest you do so. The vacuum for leaders in America right now is palpable, at least to me. I highly doubt I am the only one here who has been asked, directly, "Tell me what to do." by a complete stranger for no other reason than the fact that I took a stance on something. Can you name a powerful, proactive voice in this nation? Is there one? Obama vacillated and ran himself into a brick wall. A wall many of us saw was there.

Pick an issue. Pick a party.

Make the issue local and make it achievable within your means. It does not have to be yours - someone else's voting initiative is fine. Get something on a ballot or take something off. Learn about the process and how it works. Learn about the why and why not.

The party does not really matter as long as there are those in it who will identify with your cause. Plenty of democrats are fed up with aimlessness and plenty of republicans are fed up with ideology. Both parties have a long history of overlooking corruption in the name of party unity. You could do worse than helping to stop that.

Do not raise your voice.

Do not yell.

Make friends.

This is practice.

Learn how to convince people. Find your strengths in that regard. Maybe that's support, maybe it's leading from the front. Maybe it's being the face of an idea. Or just a voice.

You will not win converts by preaching to choirs.

If someone wonders at why you are devoting such effort to something so trivial, admit it. It's practice. Maybe they should practice too. Most will probably laugh or shrug it off. Only takes one person to agree.

I've been told that, in the United States, it is generally about six years between a political incident - whatever you might call the last two years - and its popular response.

In this, you are more than your own two hands. You are more than your single vote.

Your vote is not just yours but everyone who has the same goals and vision that you do.

If that vision is solely your own - if you do not share it, refuse to spread it, fail to grow it - then yes, your vote is going to look very, very small. This is a world of many people.

Yet there is only room for so many ideas.

And the world is starving for them.

So pick one, and plant it.

Water it. Make it grow. Of course it's hard work. Maybe someone else has a better plant. Water that. When evaluating leaders history tends to underestimate the importance of the first followers.

This country's problems - this world's problems - are not going to be solved by ten or ten thousand people.

So vote.

Not because it will make a difference, but as a personal pledge to do so in the future. To be ready to make a difference when all the difference in the world is needed.

Thank you for reading.
 
I'm not American, but our elections had already been finished last May. So yeah.. I wasn't able to vote.. Because I am not registered for voting. So I didn't vote.. I suddenly regret not voting..
 
I only vote on legislation...I don't trust anyone in the government and running politicians are the worst...I don't believe in any of the candidates so I don't bother voting for any of them.
 
Thank you for this post. Being a law student and a very active local campaigner, I very much appreciate your message and stand behind it 100%. This is very close to the ONLY way to send a clear message to Washington. Don't sit back and let others do the work you should be doing for your country!!
 
Just got back from voting. But of course living in Michigan where I do it wasn't so much voting as much as "Republican or Republican?".
 
Heh. When you live in such a small town with a massive drug problem, we really only have to decide between Bob and Barry when it comes down to who will take the position as town sheriff.

You know small town cops.
They think they own the shit out of you anyway.
>.<

And our drug problem will never be fixed.

BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT.

Vote. :]
 
I know I'm prolly gonna be thrown into the PVP.. ( ill be horde this time >< ) but i haven't and dont plan on voting. the elections are all rigged anways. that saying. i know someones gonna say 'if you havent voted you can't complain.' but freedom of speech is still a law- for now. 2012 will be the end of the world...as we know it. anybody seen V for Vendetta recently?
 
selfi said:
I know I'm prolly gonna be thrown into the PVP.. ( ill be horde this time >< ) but i haven't and dont plan on voting. the elections are all rigged anways. that saying. i know someones gonna say 'if you havent voted you can't complain.' but freedom of speech is still a law- for now. 2012 will be the end of the world...as we know it. anybody seen V for Vendetta recently?
And you KNOW all this, for a fact. *snort*



That aside, Felony ftl, I wish I could vote.
 
Selfi,

The point of voting is to protect the laws that you hold dear. If you do in fact think freedom of speech needs to be protected, then perhaps you should rethink your stance on voting. In what way do you consider voting rigged? There are many many people, including myself, that spend hours of volunteer time to make sure that people that do and do not exercise their rights are able to live free and have protected liberties in this country. I gather that you are young and have not yet seen how an administration can catapult the United States into debt of absolutely unthinkable proportions. Please take the time to educate yourself and if you have questions, I would be glad to explain to the best of my ability why this is so important.

I concede the point of selecting a candidate the lesser of two evils but to this I encourage you put yourself or put someone who you know would be good in local government to run. Your single vote in primary and general elections DO make much more of a difference than do those for the Presidential vote. I have donated my professional career and personal aspirations to advocate and protect for your liberties, please don't take such an important American task so lightly.

*Remember* Most polls are open until 7:00 tonight! Get out there and vote! Feel free to send a PM for further discussion. I hope I don't sound like I'm on a soap box but this is something I feel very very passionate about and I want to encourage others to as well.
 
This era, I don't believe there has been so passion and enthusiasm to vote for legislation. I'm an American and while I live outside the country, I managed to get my ballot in time for the elections. As one stated, I too vote for the lesser of evils. It's the only way I think that would help, if not delay Armageddon as long as possible.
 
I wish I had had time to go to my hometown to vote but it's 40 minutes away and I've been running around since 630 this morning and am now at work. If the polls don't close till 9 then I can vote- other than that, it's a no go. =/
 
I've been a mail-in voter since I was old enough to vote. I don't know that I actually believe my vote counts, however, I do know that I believe you can't complain if you have the chance to vote and don't.

And while I don't know that my vote has any real import, I do know that I am always convinced to go walk my ballot in whenever I have a conversation with one of my frenemies who loves to vomit up Fox News talking points as FACTs (upper case included). I love to tell him that my vote canceled his out. Every election, he convinces me to take the time to research, fill out, mark up voter guides and walk my ballot to the box. :]
 
--+Hahvoc Requiem+-- said:
I wish I had had time to go to my hometown to vote but it's 40 minutes away and I've been running around since 630 this morning and am now at work. If the polls don't close till 9 then I can vote- other than that, it's a no go. =/

Here's a link to poll closing times.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A04HK20101101
 
-bows head in respect to daisy- I see your point. the government does have its moments. i'll admitt.

@nicholas no i dont.. its just what i believe in. im not gonna get any farther into it..but i dont really like the american gov right now. ^^'

im free spirited and my mouth tends to run away sometimes. i will respectfully submit. and keep any other opionions to myself. ie ill shut the fuck up.
 
selfi said:
-bows head in respect to daisy- I see your point. the government does have its moments. i'll admitt.

@nicholas no i dont.. its just what i believe in. im not gonna get any farther into it..but i dont really like the american gov right now. ^^'

im free spirited and my mouth tends to run away sometimes. i will respectfully submit. and keep any other opionions to myself. ie ill shut the fuck up.
My point is, you don't KNOW this, therefore you should behave as if your opinions could be wrong.
 
I didn't vote, not because I am crazy but because I didn't know who was running for what and what they stood for. For some reason we got a lot of mudslinging without anybody saying what they are running for and what they stand for.
 
Pistol Kiss said:
I didn't vote, not because I am crazy but because I didn't know who was running for what and what they stood for. For some reason we got a lot of mudslinging without anybody saying what they are running for and what they stand for.


*Facepalms*
 
Pistol Kiss said:
I didn't vote, not because I am crazy but because I didn't know who was running for what and what they stood for. For some reason we got a lot of mudslinging without anybody saying what they are running for and what they stand for.

Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem. If you don't have access to the internet, it's really hard to research candidates.

I'm assuming you don't have internet access, right? Because you can't go and check out on the issues or ballotpedia or anything like that easily on your free time.
 
Duck believes democracy is a rotten system that works only in theory.
Duck's not American though, so Duck will just stfu and gtfo.
 
Democracy ain't perfect, and it's even worse when you get money and business involved, particularly to the degree it is in America. We've corrupted the whole process so much, the founding fathers would have collective strokes if they saw how the game works these days.

HOWEVER

It's still better at its core than any other large-scale system that's been put in practice in this world so far. Fairer, more responsive, more effective. Don't blame the system, blame those who try to make it do what it's not supposed to (i.e. cater to the rich over the masses, or to corporations).
 
Back
Top Bottom