Political Participation

1. He or she who doesn't vote and is eligible to do so, loses the right to complain when his or her collective politicians go against the person's principles and/or interests.
2. I expect nothing from my fellow man. I wish that the average citizen become at least moderately versed with the issues. I don't expect everyone to be passionate about politics.
3. Non-voting can't be seen as a protest vote by omission unless the intended nonvoter makes his or her motivations openly clear to the politicians and the media who are the targets of that protest vote by omission in the first place. An untold secret means absolutely nothing to the world which doesn't know it exists in the first place.
4. Depends on the person's social and cultural disposition. If the person is a hate-filled individual then one should be glad that he or she isn't trying to branch out and proselytize others to his or her cause. I would feel mild disappointment if the politically disinterested individual is of a likable sort. Especially if he or she has been negatively effected by recent policy changes that would hurt directly or indirectly that individual.

If I can come up with any anecdotes later on, I will provide them.

not according to george carlin

"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home. I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for that these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."

The morality of abstaining from voting can only be measured in the person's other political statements. In other words, I think it is immoral to not vote, but to boast about how thing ought to be.


That to some degree, their political mores are congruent with their actions.


If a person uses their vote or abstains from voting, when they did manage to identify something they would have voted for, I think they are irresponsible.

In other words, if you vote for McCain because you hate Obama, but you believe in the politics of some third party candidate, you're a part of the problem. Same goes for someone who would vote for Obama, to block McCain, but they'd actually like a third party candidate.


Human interest topics and politics are different. I don't care if someone is not into politics, but indifference on the issues (whatever the platform) is a bit frustrating to observe.

T
K
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If you vote you have to vote for a crook no matter wether you vote dem rep or communist. All politicians are lieing crooks who take money for thier vote.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm not really sure how I'd answer my own questions, hence the topic itself really. Food for thought though!