Will It Do Us Any Good to Vote????

30 Replies

Now that financial giants in the U.S. have staged a coup of our government, what will it take to escape this stranglehold if we can’t even count on being able to vote them out? Please read THIS NEWSWEEK REPORT about Mitch McConnell blocking voting machine reform after receiving campaign contributions from several different voting machine lobbyists. And, the likelihood that Russia has plans to affect voting machines during the next election. First the powers of free speech taken away re/ scientists being able to report on the climate crisis and protesters being able to protest the pipelines, now our right to a fair election challenged? What is it going to take for the majority to act????

30 thoughts on “Will It Do Us Any Good to Vote????”

  4. XingfuMama's avatarXingfuMama

    People do need to vote, but we have been systematically pushed to the side.

    Election reform needed to happen years ago, and, just as importantly, there needs to be a strict, and strictly enforced, body of laws limiting how much and to whom money can be donated. Taking money outside should result in forfeiture of the elected position.

    Term limits is another idea that needs to be examined. I love my senator (Patty Murray), but people staying in the senate so long restrict opportunities for new, younger people with new ideas who live in a modern world from having a say. That is part of why so few young people vote, or believe in the system.

    Moscow Mitch is a real problem. He has basically immobilized the Senate, and one person from a Podunk state shouldn’t wield veto power. The Republicans have not reigned him in, as should have happened long since. They have not, in my opinion, because the party’s agenda is not what regular people want, so if votes were cast they would not be re-elected. They can pretend that they represent because they are never put to the test.

    There was an article in our local paper last week about how even though people are leaving the Republican? (the word comes from the same root as represent) party in droves the party has not made any attempt to adjust to woo people back. To me that is a strong indication of how deep the corruption has gone. They are not even pretending to represent anymore.

    Figuring out what to do is difficult…and frustrating.

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    1. Eilene Lyon's avatarEilene Lyon

      I agree that nothing can truly change without term limits – even for the Supreme Court. They’re working well here in Colorado. They work for the presidency. Why should congress be exempt from limits? That is not what the founders envisioned – people like McConnell. Ugh.

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      2. slmret's avatarslmret

        Term limits don’t always work the way we want them to. There is an advantage to seniority and longevity for good, responsibility legislators. With term limits, these valuable legislators are lost, or must swap houses when they term out. In California, this has resulted in extensive house swapping every two years. For The national House, the representatives would last only 4 years, not enough to gain any seniority or leadership roles, and in the Senate, people like McConnell would still have 12 years (2 6-year terms) to do their damage. It is far more effective to re-elect the good leaders and vote out the bad ones than to limit their terms artificially.

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          1. slmret's avatarslmret

            With term limits, there would never have been a Tip O’Neill, or a Ted Kennedy, to think of just a couple of examples of people who understood that the Senate is a deliberative body, designed to offset the populist character of the House, and could work effectively across the aisle to form effective compromises. Unfortunately, the current leaders don’t understand that difference, and cannot see their way to compromise. And you’re right that right now there aren’t that many long-term legislators — we don’t want to have a Congress that cannot ever have good long-term leaders, though. I’m glad you see the down sides of term limits, and apologize for pursuing the issue, but we are stuck in a situation of wondering how to get rid of the “leaders” we don’t like — VOTE!!!

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        2. Eilene Lyon's avatarEilene Lyon

          We could limit terms in any way that makes sense. House reps could have 3 2-year terms, for example. And if everyone is limited, then they all have an equal shot at getting leadership positions, not held eternally by one person. And it seems clear that Kentucky doesn’t plan to vote out McConnell, no matter how much damage he does to this country. We should not assume that there aren’t others willing to step into these roles. A little house-swapping isn’t a fatal flaw in term limits.

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      3. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

        I think more relevant than term limits are dealing with redistricting to influence elections. Going by the popular vote makes more sense to me. And finding a method other than voting machines which can be so easily rigged.

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  5. Martha Kennedy's avatarMartha Kennedy

    Someone needs to light a fire under Pelosi. Not that Pence would be any great prize, but he could not win in 2020. Maybe the same people own that witch as own that clown. Voting is really the ONLY power we have.

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      1. Martha Kennedy's avatarMartha Kennedy

        Yep. I read an encouraging thing today on Twitter (I know, right? How’s that likely?) Trump tweeted that the real enemy was not “the dwindling number of Republicans that lost their way and got left behind” but the fake media. The word “dwindling” made my heart sing.

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          1. Martha Kennedy's avatarMartha Kennedy

            I don’t even care about that. I have no interest in teaching that fuck a lesson. I’m worried about my country and the people in it, their apparent deep slide into evil and the repercussions of that which could last for a long time. I will never understand how anyone could have voted for him since he’s (to me) so obviously fake, sinister and ruthless. That’s still beyond my comprehension. I’m deeply saddened by what all this has revealed to me. I didn’t need to see it. I’m pretty sick of being disillusioned. 😦

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  7. slmret's avatarslmret

    I think that not voting is equivalent to a vote for whoever wins — if we don’t vote and Trump wins again, wil will have effectively helped him to win. That in itself is sufficient motivation for me to vote!

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  9. Fandango's avatarFandango

    There are huge demonstrations in Hong Kong and even in Moscow, but we, in the U.S. are just so fatigued by what has happened to us in the past three years that we are just not taking any action. And while everyone is saying to go vote, but if the voting machines are not secure and can be easily hacked by Russia, will our votes really be counted? We need to take to the streets and make such a loud noise that it can’t be ignored!

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  10. okcForgottenMan's avatarokcforgottenman

    OMG, Just vote! Yes, it may be corrupted. Yes, it may be dismissed by The Powers. But NOT voting is your surrender! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Yes, I understand your inclination to protest by not voting. I rarely judge, but I’ll do so here: You’re UTTERLY wrong if you believe that! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! (Oh, and Mitch McConnell is much, much worse crippling our republic than the orange asshole.)

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