OT: Voting results in NH

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2004 at 01:04:15PM -0500, Greg Rundlett wrote:
> We can simply deduce that 22% of persons over the age of 18 voted 
> yesterday in NH.  If NH is the "Live Free or Die" state, I guess 78% 
> would rather let Democracy die than cast a ballot for President of the 
> United States "The Greatest Democracy in the World".  

Democracy died a long, long time ago.  You're also overlooking the
fact that this election was a PRIMARY, and the participants were
Democtrats.  The Republicans have an incumbant, so they don't need a
primary.  New Hampshire is still predominantly a Republican state.
Most of the voters in NH need not cast a ballot.  They have no one to
vote for.  If they are committed to the Republican party, there is no
choice in the matter for them.

> John Kerry received 84,229 votes which made him the winner.  Put
> another way, by convincing fewer than 10% of eligible voters to vote
> for him, he 'wins' with a 38% share of the ballots cast.  Regardless
> of your like or dislike of the candidates, they ARE the candidates.

See above.

> Democracy and your freedom are the casualty of a system that no
> longer can be called 'representative government'. 

The only sense in which our government ever was such a thing is that
the decisions that are made represent the interests of those who make
them.  That's still true today.  Anyone who thinks their opinion is
represented in our government is deluding themselves.  If your elected
leader's opinion truly represents your own opinion, you are the victim
of a happy coincidence...

> If you live in NH and didn't vote, you missed your chance to
> participate in Democracy.  Please urge everyone you know to vote.

Nonsense.  Democracy is a form of government where the citizens, as a
matter of the normal course of government, make decisions about the
laws that govern them.  That form of government does not exist in the
United States, nor any other country in the world, as far as I am aware.
It has not existed for hundreds and hundreds of years, if ever it
really did.

At best, our government is a democratic replublic, where we elect
leaders to make our decisions for us.  In practice, it's not even
that.  Their votes represent our desires only insomuch as they need to
in order to prevent sufficient discontent to incite open rioting and
other forms of political instability.  Beyond that, they represent the
people who have money and power, just as they always have.

The candidates are virtually indistinguishable, even at this stage of
the game, and we have seen over and over that no candidate ever keeps
their promises.  I will not vote because I will not contribute to the
mass dilusion that my vote is valuable.  My vote is utterly worthless,
and so is yours.

Yeah, maybe I'm a cynic. Or, maybe I'm just awake...

-- 
Derek D. Martin
http://www.pizzashack.org/
GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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