Midterm Ritual

It's Election Day here in the States. Go vote if you can! After all, it means you'll be much more justified when you complain about the results afterwards.

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

Vote= Complaint Rights

No Vote= STFU you moron

[LordNobady]

I am not going to vote and I will still complain about what you Yankees vote.

[Super Trampoline]

Uber and Lyft are offering free rides and federal law requires your employer to give you paid time off to vote so most people should have no excuse.

[River Road]

As a non-american I feel justifiably left out, so I call on all my US-less peers to hold a vote of our own.

Party of the Rising Sun or New Lunar Party? No matter what the results will be, they will be the superior ones because we get a fluffy fuzzy pony princess.

[SQA]

Finally, a good reason to vote.

[NachoTheBrony]

So, what are the options? The Man-Child of Wall Street, or the party which would have won with Uncle Bernie, but chose the Witch of Rodham?

[Eruantalon]

4963989 Our President isn't running for reelection yet, unfortunately. It's Senators, Representatives, and more local offices, all varying from place to place.

[Skywriter]

Real talk, though, there are some states and some districts where voting is spitting into a well. I still recommended it because it is important for a regionally powerful party to know when their constituents are wavering in support, and a silent opposition may give rise to the idea that their policy is uniformly popular rather than questionable.

[Lurks-no-More]

4963995
Yup. Voting is never wasted. Whether you live in the deepest red desert or blue jungle, whether or not your politics align with those of your region, go out and use your vote.

The only message not voting sends to the politicians is that you don't care, so you don't matter.

[Fallen Knight]

4963995
You could also get overall lethargy of voters allowing for a big surprise.

Like Crowley somewhat narrowly loosing to Ocasio-Corez because only a very small % of the population voted in the (primary) election. Then again he is running for apparently two parties (how does that work? ) , some womans equality party and some workers party so might still win.

Then again such upsets energize the dormant so its still a rare thing.

[libertydude]

That awkward moment when I'd like to vote, but didn't register in time.

In all seriousness, this might be a good thing for the rest of you. I haven't been paying attention to a lot of my local elections, and I almost always write-in fictional candidates for positions that I didn't study for (I refuse to vote for anyone that I don't know anything about). Uninformed electorates are a commonly-cited problem, and I don't want to add to the issue.

Though I will respectfully disagree with everybody here that's saying "If you don't vote, you can't complain". The political system is innately complex and can be influenced in numerous ways; implying that a citizen's ability to vote is the only way they can influence the country and participate in the political system is, to me, an overly simplistic view. Voting is important to American society, yes, but I think it's folly to consider it the only way for us to create change. (Again, I'd vote if I could. That doesn't mean I consider it the only way of influencing American political actions.)

[FanOfMostEverything]

4964010
I never said nonvoters couldn't complain, just that they'd be less justified in doing so. If you're taking other actions to influence the political landscape, then you have that justification.

[Cordial Nova]

4963911

On the contrary, my dear sir. Among the keystones of the legitimacy of democracy is the notion that by voting - by participating in the process by which the outcome is arrived at - you agree to abide by the popular will and accept the outcome even if it goes against you. Which is to say, if you do vote, you can't complain. You said, "let the people decide", and, hey, no backsies!

Those who never agreed, however, do get to complain about what the rest of y'all did.

[Fallen Knight]

4964020
But those that didnt vote made the active decision to do so, thereby abandoning their right to complain about the result as well...

So no one gets to complain?

[libertydude]

4964012
But thus raises another question: If a citizen doesn't do any kind of political participation (voting, protesting etc.), does that lose them any and all justification to complain? I'm honestly not sure, since while I've always done a few political activities and generally looked at a complete lack of participation as harmful passivity, the non-participators are still receiving the aftereffects of political decisions that they may not have been able to influence even if they were voting. I suppose it comes down to how much you think their participation would actually affect American politics.

[Cordial Nova]

4964024

Depends on the flavor of their complaint. Certainly you don't get to complain that the wrong side won if you didn't participate despite having a "wrong" side; on the other hand, well, let's look at an extreme and therefore clear-cut example:

1. Only members of the Klan get to influence what the Klan will do tonight.
2. You choose not to join the Klan.
3. Are you then forbidden to denounce whatever the Klan might do that you could have actively been against, had you only joined them?

Now, the us.gov isn't the Klan, despite some statements from its current leaders, sure, but the fundamental point is that if we're going to hold people responsible for, or not let them complain about, outcomes of everything they could hypothetically have participated in and made somewhat less worse, this is the hill we end up dying on.

(This also reflects the fundamental problem with voting, especially in two-party systems like the US's, which is that it presents everything as a false dichotomy; and especially so when people pull out the utilitarian "lesser evil" approach. If you don't want to Make Mordor Great Again, why, clearly the only viable choice is the White Hand That Gives Us Man-Flesh To Eat. You must choose a side! There are no other realistic options!

...and at this point, no-one should be surprised when their neighbors complain to them about all the fighting uruk-hai on the lawn.)

[Wise Cracker]

Meh. Voting is compulsory here. And illegal at the same time, once. BHV, we hardly knew ye.

Still, best of luck to everyone on the other side of the pond and the right side of history. Fight amongst yourselves about what that side might be; I'll be here on the side that's got butter on it.

[Fallen Knight]

4964049
I mean i was joking...

But as you yourself said, its not really clear cut in many cases and politics isnt some simple thing in general.

At the end of the day in my opinion the "proper" answer is that people CAN complain regardless if they voted or not/joined some group or not, most do anyway.

But at the same time other people-A can disregard other people-B's opinions. Like most do anyway.

[iisaw]

Already did... but I unfortunately live in a district so gerrymandered that the Democrats usually don't even bother running a candidate. Oh well... wrote in "Wile E. Coyote"... again.

[Skywriter]

4964029
I don't believe that the right to air grievances about the government is morally tied to having voted or not. There are many valid reasons not to vote, and I personally find "if you didn't vote, you can't complain" to be overly facile. Others may disagree, of course.

[libertydude]

4964117
I will admit that I too find the idea of "don't vote, don't complain" a little too simplistic. My main reasoning is that there are so many ways a person can interact and influence the political system other than voting. It's definitely the most direct of methods, but that shouldn't invalidate those whose political participation doesn't involve voting.

[Summer Dancer]

And now we wait

[SPark]

4963935
Where I am you get mailed a ballot about two weeks in advance, and you just have to fill it out and mail it back or drop it in a ballot drop, and there are tons of those.

I wish more states did it this way, it's the BEST.

[SPark]

4964117
I think it's a little facile, but... I don't know. It's the single simplest way to have an input on how things go. If you pass that up just for sheer laziness, and not for some actual reason, I think you probably should STFU, yes. If people have a reason, and care enough to articulate it, I'm down to listen, but it's really frustrating when "don't vote, it makes no difference" is literally both Republican propaganda, and Russian shill-bot propaganda. If you fall for Russian propaganda bots, I will side-eye you SO HARD.

4964103
Jordanis and I write in Jordanis for the "only one person running" votes every year. Pointless but satisfying. Though it's scary how many posts are totally uncontested. Somebody should write a fanfic about that, it's a fertile idea for one of those amusing commentary fics. If I could do that genre worth shit I would.

[Loganberry]

4963935

federal law requires your employer to give you paid time off to vote

I didn't know that! I'm British, and over here there's no such law. It's easy to get a postal vote, but of course you have to think about that in advance.

[NachoTheBrony]

4963992
I know that. Believe me that the entire world knows when the US is voting for president, as Yank foreign policy tends to leave larger body counts than genocides.
Well, here's a good question: does the Republican Party actually has to nominate Trump for reelection, or can he receive the finger?

[Super Trampoline]

4964203
Sitting presidents don't usually see much primary competition, but give Trumps unpopularity, he may see some amount of challenge from more traditional candidates in 2020.

[No Raisin]

I love succumbing to social pressure.

4964117
That's kind of the best-case scenario as far as nonvoter-as-scapegoat goes. A lot of the time it's more like a celebrity talking to a camera, saying, "Well, aren't ya gonna vote, scumbag? What're you, an idiot?" Sadly I'm not being hyperbolic about this.

[Frustration in Excelsis]

Voting is always an experience. For me, mostly one consisting of voting in advance because I know I'll forget to do it if I put it off and then counting stress ulcers while I wait to see how many people voted "sink" instead of voting "swim".

[iisaw]

4964250
Victim-blaming.