Texas Libra Posted October 7, 2008 Mancubus II said:They do, it's called not voting. And to OP, even though I'm no fan or supporter of mccain, it seems ridiculous to run an extremely biased poll and expect any intelligent discussion to arise. What I meant is to actually submit a vote saying "none of the above" so that I'm allowed to bitch and moan about the current administration as opposed to not voting and thus not allowed to bitch and moan ;) 0 Share this post Link to post
John Smith Posted October 7, 2008 Write in someone that you think would be a cool president. You have fulfilled your obligation as a citizen to vote, but you didn't choose to endorse either major candidate. 0 Share this post Link to post
GreyGhost Posted October 7, 2008 This is the Palin I'd like to see on the Republican ticket. 0 Share this post Link to post
Stupid Bunny Posted October 7, 2008 GreyGhost said:This is the Palin I'd like to see on the Republican ticket. I've actually seen bumper stickers that say "Cleese/Palin in '08" 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted October 7, 2008 AndrewB said:I don't see how any of this matters since Obama is going to win the nomination and the presidency. Can anyone find the thread where I originally said the above so that I know when it was said? Obama won the nomination over a month ago. I don't think it's such a sure thing he'll win the presidency though. I think you underestimate the amount of stupid people in this country. 0 Share this post Link to post
AndrewB Posted October 7, 2008 Danarchy said:Obama won the nomination over a month ago. Read my second sentence. 0 Share this post Link to post
master lockwolf Posted October 7, 2008 You cant go wrong with a vote for Ralphis! At least he won't bullshit everything 0 Share this post Link to post
40oz Posted October 7, 2008 even if you guys don't like the candidates, you should vote anyway. I'm aware of plenty of people who say they are voting for Obama merely because he's black. Or McCain just because he wants to win wars. Since some of you guys tend to think both candidates are dumb, you obviously know what's best for the country, so what would be the point in NOT voicing your opinion, and letting all the dumb people who THINK they know whats best for the country do it? That's the way I look at it. I wish I was 18 so that I could vote. I got just one more year. 0 Share this post Link to post
Enjay Posted October 7, 2008 JohnnyRancid said:even if you guys don't like the candidates, you should vote anyway. Vote for a candidate you don't want? I was always told that my vote was a valuable thing. It needs to be earned, not frittered away on some fool who happens to be not quite as bad as the other guy. Worried that your voice won't be heard? Do you have the concept of a "spoiled ballot" in the US? If I don't like any candidate in any elections I take part in, I go and deliberately mess up the voting slip. That way, my vote gets recorded as a "spoiled paper". OK, so some spoiled papers are from retards who can't follow instructions. However, anyone who is savvy enough to know what is going on realises that, in many cases, it means "I turned up and made the effort to vote, but none of you guys were good enough". A large number of spoiled papers is seen as a slap in the face and a vote of no confidence in the candidates (not that it actually makes a difference - one of the incompetents still gets elected). The system is well enough established that there has been requests that any totally electronic system that cannot be manually spoiled actually has an option for "spoil paper". Whether that will actually happen or not, I don't know. 0 Share this post Link to post
AndrewB Posted October 7, 2008 Even for most people that have grown completely apathetic over the last several years, I just can't help but think that you have to love Obama. He is to presidential candidates what Google was to search engines. 0 Share this post Link to post
Dr. Zin Posted October 8, 2008 Enjay said:If I don't like any candidate in any elections I take part in, I go and deliberately mess up the voting slip. That way, my vote gets recorded as a "spoiled paper". OK, so some spoiled papers are from retards who can't follow instructions. However, anyone who is savvy enough to know what is going on realises that, in many cases, it means "I turned up and made the effort to vote, but none of you guys were good enough". A large number of spoiled papers is seen as a slap in the face and a vote of no confidence in the candidates (not that it actually makes a difference - one of the incompetents still gets elected). The system is well enough established that there has been requests that any totally electronic system that cannot be manually spoiled actually has an option for "spoil paper". Whether that will actually happen or not, I don't know. The equivalent over here is, sadly, voting for a Third Party canidate - which is what I plan on doing. 0 Share this post Link to post
Death-Destiny Posted October 8, 2008 Yeah, in the U.S, screwed up ballots just get put in a "Spolied and Defaced Ballots" envelope where no one ever looks at them again other than to make sure they're accounted for and simply destroy them. I'd still vote for a candidate I don't like, though, just as a vote against the other guy. I may not like candidate #1, but I know I'll really hate candidate #2, so best do my part to prevent him from getting elected. In this theoretical scenario, there's no candidate I like, but there's defintely one I don't like, so my preference would be for the first candidate just because I'm sure he'd do better than the latter. Back to the topic at hand, McCain can't win the US election becuase his VP is a woman. Not to point out the sexist aspects of politics, but I have my doubts that Americans will give a woman a good chance of gaining the presidency at this point, what with the last 43 US presidents being men... :/ 0 Share this post Link to post
AndrewB Posted October 8, 2008 "I'm not much popular with my own party, much less his." John McCain 0 Share this post Link to post
GreyGhost Posted October 8, 2008 AndrewB said:I don't see how any of this matters since Obama is going to win the nomination and the presidency.[/B] Can anyone find the thread where I originally said the above so that I know when it was said?23 Apr 2008 0 Share this post Link to post
Doom Marine Posted October 8, 2008 Trailing the Obama / Biden ticket by a mere five votes, Ralphis and Deathz0r hasn't given one interview or participated in a single debate since their nomination, I mean... Biden's gotten like 80 under his belt, and Palin had to face off against sexy Katie Couric (who is hotter than Palin)... I've yet seen one public appearance by Ralphis or Deathz0r. Who are these two? Can the American people trust them in times of crisis? What are their views on the economy, the war, abortion? 0 Share this post Link to post
chungy Posted October 8, 2008 Dr. Zin said:The equivalent over here is, sadly, voting for a Third Party canidate - which is what I plan on doing. I'll probably vote libertarian out of principle anyway. I should check that I actually agree with their candidate first, but it's not like they have a chance of winning anyway. 0 Share this post Link to post
The Ultimate DooMer Posted October 8, 2008 It makes no odds who wins, as they don't control the country anyway. 0 Share this post Link to post
Jello Posted October 8, 2008 If you're a Libertarian, you don't agree with what Bob Barr stands for. Sad really, I was hoping for at least a decent third party candidate I could vote for. 0 Share this post Link to post
VileSlay Posted October 8, 2008 Enjay said:If I don't like any candidate in any elections I take part in, I go and deliberately mess up the voting slip. That way, my vote gets recorded as a "spoiled paper". you might as well not vote. you may not agree 100% with what any of the candidates stand for, but someone has to come close to what you want. unfortunately we have to decide between the lesser of two evils. not voting or spoiling your ballot is not going to be looked at as a slap in the face. it's just going to look like you couldn't give a rats ass. and the only one thats going to wag their finger at you or consider it a slap in the face is the guy who loses. 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted October 8, 2008 Enjay said:Vote for a candidate you don't want? I was always told that my vote was a valuable thing. It needs to be earned, not frittered away on some fool who happens to be not quite as bad as the other guy. You don't HAVE to vote for the other guy and still vote, despite what some people think. There are literally hundreds of third parties to vote for (a lot of them batshit crazy, but some legit), and if you really want to you can write in your next door neighbor as a candidate. I actually voted for Kerry in the last election as a vote AGAINST Bush just because I hated that fucker so bad, but in retrospect I really regret it because Kerry was a jackass too. I should have voted for Cobb. He was a pretty good Green Party candidate unlike the crazy-ass woman who thinks Hurricane Katrina was a government effort to kill black people that they have as a candidate this year. Seriously, what the fuck? Worried that your voice won't be heard? Do you have the concept of a "spoiled ballot" in the US? If I don't like any candidate in any elections I take part in, I go and deliberately mess up the voting slip. That way, my vote gets recorded as a "spoiled paper". OK, so some spoiled papers are from retards who can't follow instructions. However, anyone who is savvy enough to know what is going on realises that, in many cases, it means "I turned up and made the effort to vote, but none of you guys were good enough". A large number of spoiled papers is seen as a slap in the face and a vote of no confidence in the candidates (not that it actually makes a difference - one of the incompetents still gets elected). The system is well enough established that there has been requests that any totally electronic system that cannot be manually spoiled actually has an option for "spoil paper". Whether that will actually happen or not, I don't know. That's actually something I've never heard of before. Weird. Does it ever actually accomplish anything or get any press coverage? 0 Share this post Link to post
Enjay Posted October 8, 2008 VileSlay said:you might as well not vote. you may not agree 100% with what any of the candidates stand for, but someone has to come close to what you want. Not in the last election they didn't. On a major isuue of principal, I believed that the current government had sold us down the river and made an utterly immoral choice. All the other candidates in my area had sided with the govenrnment. I had no choice on a policy that I utterly disagreed with so none of them were worthy of my vote. May as well not vote? Not true. If you don't vote, there is just the bland statistic of what the turnout was. If it's low, it just looks like people didn't care. If you do vote, but spoil the paper, overall, it makes no difference, but the number of spoiled papers are counted and published. So, a high turn out with a lot of spoiled papers is seen as a vote of no confidence. Danarchy said:That's actually something I've never heard of before. Weird. Does it ever actually accomplish anything or get any press coverage? Accomplish anything... In the grand scheme of things, not just a hell of a lot, no. The guy who was always going to get in still gets in. However, as I said above, the number of spoiled papers do get counted and published. Also, if you ever get into a conversation about governments and someone says "well you guys voted them in" or "what did you do about it" saying "no I didn't" and "I turned up and told them they were all shit" is so much better than "oh, I just didn't bother". 0 Share this post Link to post
Lüt Posted October 8, 2008 Enjay said:Also, if you ever get into a conversation about governments and someone says "well you guys voted them in" or "what did you do about it" saying "no I didn't" and "I turned up and told them they were all shit" is so much better than "oh, I just didn't bother". Interesting, because there actually is a crowd of people so irrational they say you can't possibly have an opinion about anything somebody does if you didn't vote for/against them. Far as I can tell, it seems to be one of those uniquely American trends, but then blaming other people for a different person's actions always has been. Anyway, as for this election, I think McCain has the better odds. No matter how much people talk about how much they'd like new and fresh things, the practical and familiar usually wins out at the moment of decision. I'm pretty sure everybody here at one point has talked up something they want to do, maybe for a very long time, only to back out at the last moment. There's a name for that principle, but I forget it. Regardless, Obama has to put some major emphasis on how he's going to actually accomplish what he talks about if he wants to win against McCain's experience factor, otherwise I think a lot of Obama fans will fall back to McCain when they're finally in the voting booths. 0 Share this post Link to post
40oz Posted October 8, 2008 Enjay said:Vote for a candidate you don't want? I was always told that my vote was a valuable thing. It needs to be earned, not frittered away on some fool who happens to be not quite as bad as the other guy. The unfortunate truth is this: if you hate both candidates, vote for the one you hate the least. This way congress has some idea of what it is you really want so that they can lean more in the right direction in the future. If you know what's best for the US, then why the hell don't you lead the government in the right direction? By not voting, you are basically saying that every direction leads us equally closer to failure. This can't possibly be the case. EDIT: Really all I'm saying is that not voting is basically like letting other people (And it's pretty agreeable that a majority of American's are stupid) make decisions for you. I don't see why you would want to let stupid people run the country when you have as much oppurtunity as them to say what you think is best for the country. Honestly, it's people like you (and not just you, anyone who thought it was a good idea to not vote) generations ago who let stupid people become our candidates. What gives you the impression that you will get better results by sitting down and watching the outcomes instead of DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT? 0 Share this post Link to post
Haloless0320 Posted October 8, 2008 This is the way I see it... Obama wants to raise taxes...speaks for itself McCain is a Warmonger...also speaks for itself If Obama wins we have to pay out more taxes so the dregs of society can recieve help for their "Inability" to work. If McCain wins we get a Milf as a vice president but we'll probably be pulled into more conflicts in the middle east and probably more than that.Pretty much a repeat of the crap we went through with Bush. But from what I hear Ron Paul and various other grassroots rep's have formed their own party...maybe we'll see another civil war here soon so we can re-establish a more stable government. 0 Share this post Link to post
myk Posted October 8, 2008 JohnnyRancid said: (And it's pretty agreeable that a majority of American's are stupid)I think it's rather disagreeable, although it's evident by how they use the apostrophe :p PS: Not all is bad, at least you sound more humane or smarter than Haloless0320. 0 Share this post Link to post