If you can be absolutely relied upon to vote for the candidate of a particular party, regardless of the particular candidate's behavior or the specifics of the party platform ...
then you're quite right. Casting a vote IS a pointless and powerless gesture.
People talk about "holding the politician's feet to the fire".
What does that mean? Writing letters, sending FAXes, making phone calls?
Horsecrap.
Unless you can credibly withold from the politician something he wants from you, you have no power over him.
Let us take an example:
I live in West Virginia. I have almost no power over the detestable Sen. Joe Manchin. He's a democrat. He will NEVER get my vote. If he can be made to think I might vote for him, that might give my letters etc some weight ... but the fact remains that he will NEVER get my vote.
Shelley Moore Capito is currently running for the other Senate seat. What power have my letters etc? That of my vote. Nothing more. Being a Republican, there's at least the possibility that I might vote for her. But if I will definitely vote for her, regardless of what she does, my letters etc. have no power. She can do anything she wants, without the possibility of losing my vote.
I can only "hold her feet to the fire" if I can credibly threaten to withhold my vote.
That was well stated and -oh-so-true.
I believe we are past the point of any of our votes actually having power over the Oligarchy in Washington.
As has been stated by staunch Conservatives (I even heard Mark Levin make this statement) Washington is not going to reform itself, nor will it allow itself to be reformed by the very people they rule. That is the fact of where we have arrived, and it was a slow incremental ride until the last few years where the masks have come off and we have near-single party rule.
They continue to demonstrate contempt for their constituencies, lecturing us that we do not know what is good for us and nearly unanimously governing against the will of the people.
I contend that politicians who hold their base in contempt and are not afraid of losing by declaring war on the same, know that our votes no longer matter or have any power in deciding their office. Otherwise they would not dare to do as McConnell and the GOP Establishment has done to Conservatives.
‘Shelley Moore Capito is currently running for the other Senate seat. What power have my letters etc? That of my vote. Nothing more. Being a Republican, there’s at least the possibility that I might vote for her. But if I will definitely vote for her, regardless of what she does, my letters etc. have no power. She can do anything she wants, without the possibility of losing my vote.
I can only “hold her feet to the fire” if I can credibly threaten to withhold my vote.’
+1
Understood.
I wouldn’t vote at all before I ever voted for a Democrat.
NEVER vote for a Democrat. There are no Zell Miller’s.
Joe Manchin is below despicable. He is a Democrat ICEBERG. 10% of what you see is him publicly disagreeing with Obama because of the political reality of a changing WV. The 90% that is hidden supports Reid and Obama without fail. Because of that he is worse to me than Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer.