Posted on 11/09/2012 4:51:01 AM PST by LD Jackson
Perhaps I should have changed the title of this post to "The Americans Who Stayed At Home". That's really where this all lies. In the aftermath of the election, I was reading some posts on Facebook and came across one from someone I am related to. He and his wife shall remain nameless, but what they posted troubled me greatly. They basically congratulated President Obama for his victory and then wrote that they were proud of the fact that they did not vote. I could not believe what I was reading. How can any American citizen not have the desire to exercise the voice granted us by the United States Constitution? How can any American citizen not have the desire to vote in our electoral system?
I couldn't let that pass by (probably should have), so I commented that they should be ashamed of themselves. You know, with my usual discrete tactfulness. I was quickly informed that it was not an obligation that Americans vote. That if it were an obligation, it would not be freedom. Of course, they are technically right. It is a freedom of choice, whether we choose to vote or not. I responded that they were throwing away the sacrifices already paid so we could have that freedom and they said it was still their right and we would have to agree to disagree. I left well enough alone and did not respond, but my mind has been rolling, trying to get a handle on the attitude I saw displayed.
We all know many elections have a very small turnout. In an election of such importance, one would think that Americans would want to voice their opinion in the most powerful way available, but that is not the case. Mitt Romney received fewer votes than did John McCain. Barack Obama received fewer votes than he did in 2008. Do the majority of Americans simply not care about the direction of our country? I do not know the percentage of Americans who are actually registered to vote, but according to voting statistics that were certified early this year, there is a gap of 60 million people between the number of Americans who are eligible to vote and those who are not registered. There is a difference of over 15 million people between the number of Americans who are registered to vote and those who choose not to vote.
Some of these people are not doubt, disillusioned by the system. Many of them probably believe that it does no good to vote. Some of them probably do not care, as long as they are not troubled from their busy schedule. Almost 18% of those who choose not to vote cite conflicting schedules. With the number of ways we have to vote in America, that is a shame. There are also those who did not vote on November 6 because they did not like the choices. That is their privilege, but it does not take away from the fact that many of them chose not to make their opinions known by voting.
Where does that leave our country? I firmly believe America would not be in the shape it is in, if the people who should be voting actually exercised that right and voiced their opinions at the ballot box. We can complain about the system all we want, that it does not good to vote, but it would make a vast difference, if more of us came out to vote. For that, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
too bad the author did not ask/discover why the couple did not vote, or even regardless of the congratulating Obama, was Obama or Romney their actual choice - had they voted? A non vote is usually a “no” vote and usually a no vote toward someone.
so, his article tells us very little about the non-voters
he did identify this unrelated data point:
“there is a gap of 60 million people between the number of Americans who are eligible to vote and those who are not registered”
which points to a large field that the GOP has never had an organized ground game to try and plow - but the Dims have
meanwhile, since the author does not help identify the non-voters in any factual data sort of way, I expect this thread to be filed with responses that claim to fill in that blank; yet I expect the majority of them will be as lacking in data as the author
In Iowa, anyone can go to a caucus and most other states have primaries and anyone can vote there, too.
The GOP-e were sent a clear message from Conservatives after 2008. They ignored it. but it is the Conservatives you hold to account. Not once have you said anything but it's our fault for not taking it in the shorts and liking it.
You claim that you criticize anyone who indirectly helped -O- but continue to ignore the party the set up this situation. They keep the primaries open in the states. They send out attack dogs at any conservative candidate. They even cooperate with the liberals in assassinating the characters of the conservatives running. They leave TEA Party backed candidates to whither on the vine.
About 3/4 of the Republican primaries had about as much choice as Cubans do in their so called elections. But hey, they got to vote, right?
Something is -very- wrong with this “election”.
This will sound “racist” but I don’t care.
Our polling place serves a relatively small amount of people and the poll workers have been the same people/families since I first voted when I was 18. [well over 30 years ago]
That night I went to my poll to find a HUGE black guy and very nasty large black woman “watching the polls”.
Where I live, there are virtually no “minorities”.
It’s hillbilly/cracker world.
Two of the poll watchers who are *always* there were conspicuously absent. [R]
The huge black man had this spooky/scary/crazy smile thing going on.
He just kept staring at us all as we stood in the *insanely* long line to vote.
[we had a “200% turnout”, apparently]
The woman didn’t bother to conceal her contempt.
I could actually feel the nervousness/tension in the air.
The registration ladies had the strange expressions of people who have a gun poked in their back and they’re trying to ask for help with their eyes.
The usually happy, mellow place just ‘felt very wrong’.
The small, skinny elderly man who leads people to their voting machines was visibly trembling and nervous as hell.
We saw several local friends there *but*, in the relatively short amount of time we were there, I saw quite a few “minority” voters -walking- up the road to the polling place.
The polling place is miles out in the boonies, for FGS.
Where were they walking *from*?
Except for about a dozen houses in that little backwater village, it’s not within normal ‘walking distance’ for anybody.
Right beside of it is I-70 and a sizable gas station/truck stop.
Is that where they were coming from?
I’ve never seen those people here before and I’m sure if Hispanics/blacks were moving into our area, it would be a hot topic of conversation around the cracker barrel, as it were.
Heck, we all know where the [few] Democrats live around here.
And for the first time ever, there was a ‘voter ID’ standee displayed.
As follows:
“Do 1st time voters need ID?: Yes, if registered by mail, and copy of ID was not sent with registration and if ID numbers were not verified by the state.
Do all voters need ID?: No
Student ID accepted?: Yes. You may also be required to prove your current address.
What forms of ID are acceptable?
A copy of a current and valid photo ID
MD driver’s license
MVA-issued ID card
Student ID card
Employee or military ID card
US passport
Any other State or federal government-issued ID card
Copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows your name and address. (Current means that the document is dated within 3 months of the election).
If a voter needs an acceptable form of ID on election day but does not have one, he or she may cast a provisional ballot. However, the ballot will not be counted unless the voter provides one of the acceptable forms of ID above to their local elections board by the second Wednesday after the election.”
And if this sounds paranoid, the huge black guy sure looked an awful lot like the ginormous SEIU guy who was terrorizing people at the local TEA party rally 2 years ago.
WTH?
The union goons/ACORN have come to Hillbilly Heaven?
Despite local, extremely vocal opposition, *all* the referendums passed handily.
Coincidence?
They *knew* there was going to be an unusually large turnout of W.MDers this year.
Were they ‘prepared’ for us?
hey ref your first few lines.
I;ve spoken to a bunch of freepers and others who have said the same and it happened to us as well.
I;ll tell what I saw but this is the same all over FL
We know the poll workers but this time there were many new faces.
One large big boobed caked in make up hispanic woman was there giving m wife a hard time, she tried to tell my wife she coudl not go to the booth next to me and share the sample ballot.
We had never seen half of the people at the polling station .
http://enrnow.votesjc.com/FL/St_Johns/42920/111353/en/md.html?cid=0103
my county above and how it voted.
Now this hispanic woman did not live arond here as this county is something like 90% white and trust me how she was dressed and looked she woudl stick out like a sore thumb
something is wrong with these results and we still have even freepers saying we did not run out but I;ve gone around and looked at other counties.
By 'voice', I take it to mean speech which is covered by Amendment I. Again, it explicitly does not say that the right to vote comes from the Constitution. It simply is not there. Nice distraction for you, though.
Rick was beat down to the point he was without the financial means to do anything in a general election. And the GOP-e had deserted him. The writing was on the wall, he was just hard-headed.
conservatism wins. Ted Cruz pulled it off in Texas, and got a higher percentage than Romney did from the same voting pool.
Yet you choose to continue to support the GOP-e and their war on Conservatism.
"Nice" distraction by you. The sentence just before the one I bolded (to help you find it) remarked how he was shocked that his friends didn't VOTE. He wasn't remarking that his friends didn't exercise some 1st amendment right.
But you go right on ahead taking the author however you want. I still think the piece is moronic, and appears to be informed by an ignorant belief. Your argument doesn't persuade me.
And that proves that romney was not foisted on us?
Yes, unless you have some other evidence.
That ain't how it works... Having been around Conservatives for a while, I would think you would know that.
There ya go. If the customers aren't showing up, then your product sucks... Simple as that.
How does it prove that?
Until, the GOP deploys a ground game, we will keep losing.
When I was judge of elections in the 2000 election, I saw the Dems ground game. I could cpeculate about fraud, and all that, and there may have been some, but what the Dems are good at, is getting their voters to the polls. and making sure that they vote. The pick them up at their homes, and deliver them to the polling places.
If we are not willing to do that, we will not win.
well that means in easy terms is we’re F-ed
“ref your last two lines. Have you looked at these results like others have?”
My last two lines didn’t mean what you seem to assume. What I had in mind were not just the “lost McCain voters” (the numbers on that story are both evolving and distributed in ways that had uneven effects on state outcome), but the millions of independents and “moderate Democrats”, who by all rights SHOULD have voted for Romney. These votes were critical to build a margin of victory to offset the Dem’s massive fraud operations. This group voted for Reagan under similar circumstances (an incompetent Dem President, wrecked economy, weak foreign policy, etc). I am not an advocate of pandering to dependency voters and amnesty hounds to get votes, or becoming Democrats-Lite. What I do want is a less destructive nominating process, better down-ticket candidate development, and a much stronger job of presenting an unapologetic conservative agenda. Romney tried to be too genial and non-specific. This did not provide a strong positive reason for moderates to turn out for him, and allowed attack ads and the media to portray him as unprincipled, pet-abusing, bullying, and insincere. The negative attacks on Romney raised enough doubts to keep the “moderate/independent” voters from voting for him. 9 million+ of these stayed home rather than vote for Obama.
I refuse to believe that. We’re supposed to be the ones who don’t believe in the free lunch.
Just so we are all clear, I am blaming the loss we have suffered on voter turnout. What I am saying is that it is a shame that so many Americans seem to care so little about our country that they will not vote at all. That’s what is troubling me.
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