Think voting doesn’t matter? Amendments are ratified by elected state legislatures. Are you a woman? Are you black? The 15th & 19th Amendments were passed by white men! There wasn’t a single woman or black person in the entire Congress.
If your vote doesn’t matter, why did corporations go all the way to Supreme Court to get permission to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence who you’ll vote for? (Citizens United vs FEC)
If your vote doesn’t matter, why did ONE billionaire go all the way to the Supreme Court to get permission to spend unlimited amounts of money to buy it? (McCutcheon vs FEC)
If your vote doesn’t matter, why did 19 states pass laws in 2014 making it more difficult to vote? Why are they trying to legislate silence? What do they have to gain?
Voting is a matter of cause and effect. The narcissists and liars in Congress today are there because they were voted into office. So were the good ones.
I’ve said before and will say again: you can’t use logic to reason with illogical people (though with the above statements, I definitely gave it my best shot). You have to use emotion. So, finally, please know that if you believe your vote doesn’t matter, someone is getting off on that. They’re rubbing their hands together going, moo ha ha ha … and chuckling all the way to the bank.
And not voting is weighted. Not voting at the polls is the same as voting with our silence for everything to stay the same. Consider this: the majority of eligible voters do not show up at the polls, even in presidential election years.
Elected officials may have the rule-making authority, but the masses have the power to decide who gets that authority. We the people. Rulers (“politicians”) work for us. This is the difference between power and authority: Elected officials have Authority. We have the Power to keep them on the payroll OR vote them out. They work for US. Imagine if you had been raised – known your whole life – that the day you turn 18, you become the employer of 4 federal employees — your one Representative, your two Senators, and the President.
The Divide and Conquer Method is what keeps people discouraged, keeps them from showing up at the polls, and keeps them from exercising this power to cause change – power that, if you’re an American, you came into like the richest inheritance the day you came of age. In other words, if you think the system is broken, remember, you’re supposed to.
The Myth of Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils
Think that if you voted, you’d only be voting for the lesser of two evils? That’s a myth. People are people. They have strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited, whether they work for the private sector or public. Everyone responds to incentives. We the people first have to be aware of that (that politicians are not above us or beyond us – that they work FOR us) and then we can get down to the business of reminding them, hey, you work for us. We pay your salary. And we’re watching. And in two or six years, if we don’t like your performance, we’re going to let you go.
We the People have the MOST leverage when a politician is up for re-election and has something to lose — namely, their job. Corporations are already fully aware of this! They know what the masses don’t: party doesn’t matter, threat of unemployment does.
Corporations already know what the masses don’t about leveraging re-election: the party of the individual congressperson doesn’t matter – only threat of unemployment does.
We the People have the leverage. Let’s be like corporations and say with our vote, “Congress, if you don’t do what WE want, we’ll find someone else who will – next election.”
March 2015 updates: register to vote HERE
TWEET THIS (copy/paste): it’s a common misperception that party matters. We have to think like corps&tell Congress, don’t do what we want, no re-election.
Source for above tweet: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/news/2014/11/13/2014-midterms-defined-by-low-voter-turnout
Keep on fighting the good fight, Sarah!
Thank you, Clay! It means a lot!!
I agree almost entirely and I appreciate your writing this!
People feel voting doesn’t matter in my view quite often because our lives are just not getting better in fact they have been getting harder for decades and people are just starting to realize it. There are some ways in which are lives are better but by in large the entire chunk of income created since 2009 has gone to the top 1% and many who lost their jobs in the crash only got them back at half their previous salary!
People see Democrats like in the last Mid Term election running campaigns where they won’t even admit having voted for our Party leader President Obama or run on his and our party’s many accomplishments achieved before Democrats failed to vote in 2010 and handed over the government to the anti-government insurgency calling itself the “Tea Party”. So that depressed the vote even more as why show up to vote when our candidates are afraid to run on progressive issues we all care about like healthcare, education and protecting the social safety net programs of Social Security and Medicare!
We can’t blame it all on non-voters is what I’m saying. We get these weak and in my view spineless selfish candidates running as Dems because most of the Democratic rank and file FAIL to show up in the party conventions and meetings to endorse the most progressive primary candidates. Most don’t even know they can go to the conventions or that they even exist for Gods sakes!
In my view we have to crash the conventions in every state and make a hella noise against the TPP against War in the Middle East and for raising the minimum wage to a real living wage of $15 an hour. While we are there say hell no we won’t let you cut SNAP food stamps or Social Security one penny either!
Thanks for your article!