I just wasted ten minutes of my life... I voted.

[Courtesy Flush]

Maybe it's just because I live in a red state, but I feel like my vote counts for nothing. Republicans are Republicans. Democrats are Republicans. Who fucking cares?

[annabanana]

1. It's NEVER a waste of time to vote. They WANT you to just give up..

How many people did you bring with you?

[Courtesy Flush]

2. LOL. I went with my Republican wife.

She's burnt out too.

[Scuba]

26. +1

[Horse with no Name]

3. I feel the same way.

It is disheartening to be politically active and then on voting day have to be up against neanderthals that do nothing but drink beer, watch nascar and faux news, listen to rush and read Drudge crawl out of their caves and decide how the country/state/county/city is going to be run.:(

[lunatica]

12. Always remember MLK Jr and Mandela when you feel disheartened

That's what I do. Don't let them defeat you. You're on the right side.

[MedicalAdmin]

17. Invictus.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.



William Ernest Henley

[lunatica]

19. Exactly! Words of such profound wisdom and bravery from a teenager!

Mandela wrote it down on a scrap of paper and hung it on his prison wall. It gives me goose bumps every time I read it.

MLK Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech also gives me goosebumps when I hear him speaking it.

[joshcryer]

4. I can think of much worse wastes of time than voting. So good for you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Red state or not, you never know who you might inspire.

After all, do the Republicans give up when they're outnumbered?

NEVER.

Hang in there, my dear Courtesy Flush...

:hi:

[Courtesy Flush]

6. Thanks to those who rec'd

You know what I'm talking about. Votes don't change things. Votes just create more politicians.

OWS is the model we need. March in the streets and demand better. Pull your savings out of big banks. Vote with your dollars.

[joshcryer]

10. I rec'd because you voted, not because you think it was a waste of time.

;)

[Rabblevox]

7. That is one of the saddest and scariest posts I've ever read, I just wish I could say with assurance

that you were wrong.

I WILL say that sometimes it's the smaller, local elections that have the most impact, and those are the ones where a handful of people can make a difference.

Please don't give up completely on the electoral process. It's badly broken, but we need to fix it, not throw it away.

[woo me with science]

18. This

is a very good answer. Thank you for it.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. I know the feeling.

The Mississippi state elections are coming up in a couple of weeks and the candidates are so bad that I just want to spend election day in a bar. There's one of those 'personhood' amendments on the ballot this year, so I just hope we can keep it from passing. The teabaggers are making a move to completely take over the state and if they aren't stopped now, I fear things are going to be really bad here for a really long time. The Democrats are bad here, but at least they aren't teabaggers -- at least, not yet.

[elocs]

9. Just met again a man I knew in grade school. He is 61 and proud never to have voted.

I guess he never wasted any minutes of his life in voting as do the millions of others who cannot be bothered.

The right to vote is an honor, one which people in countries which get the right to vote for the first time will walk many miles and even risk their lives to cast a ballot. In this country many begrudge even having to go across town to vote.

I know that there are elections that are manipulated or stolen, but I refuse to be among the camp that continually cries "we was robbed" when a Democrat loses a close election.

Republicans are not omnipotent, neither are they the Borg who claim that "resistance is futile" however much some Democrats may buy into that notion. Republicans are good and tactically smart and play to win recognizing no rules. Democrats need to be better and smarter and flat out win and stop playing or we will see an America being run by the GOP like an apartheid South Africa.

Oh yeah, I have wasted many minutes of my life but none of them were wasted in voting.

[lunatica]

11. When the odds are against you and you still fight then you're just another hero

Think of it this way. Nelson Mandela must have wanted to give up many times during his 28 years in jail on a hot and arid island. If he had given up South Africa would still be as it was.

[Warpy]

13. I've lived in red areas and voted Democratic just to annoy the Republicans

because you know they want perfect consensus on their bullshit.

Remember, Democrats are slightly more pragmatic and less dogmatic, meaning they're less likely to stay bought. Republicans always stay bought.

[jwirr]

25. Now that is the big reason most of us do not give up - let them know

we are here and we are not going anywhere.

[Turbineguy]

14. Don't let these

creeps get you down.

My republican (teabagger) brother in law got what he voted for: laid off.

[Courtesy Flush]

16. +1 LOL

[lunatica]

20. Do you sweetly remind him of this?

[Turbineguy]

27. I don't think he makes the connection.

There's no point.

[AsahinaKimi]

15. I got two absentee ballots in the mail..

Not sure why. I checked them out, both the same. Did one, threw the other way...(And yes, both had my name on it.)I mailed one in. Sure makes it easier to do this, have to admit. The ballot this year in SF was nothing special. Mayor vote, District Attorney, head Sheriff vote, and few odds an end things, nothing special. But I did my civic duty!

yay me! ^^

[Herlong]

21. Here is a question for you

If you don't vote as an American what do you have left?

[gateley]

22. You can't stop trying. THEN how would you feel? nt

[jwirr]

23. I lived in Iowa most of my life and I hear you. In the area of Iowa we

lived in (NW) many of us actually registered rethug because no Democratic candidates ran for the local elected positions and were thus decided in the closed primaries. Then in the general election we would vote Democratic but we seldom won. This year I have a friend who is running for city council in Sioux City Iowa. Hope she wins. Her family has been Democratic since her grandfather came over from Ireland. Go Rhonda.

[tabbycat31]

24. Never a waste of time to vote

I voted about 2 weeks ago, and I will spend the next 2 making sure voters in a district about an hour south of me get out and vote.

Everyone I voted for will most likely lose by 2-1 but I still support my party 100% in general elections.

ETA I live in a red county in a blue state. My state legislative district used to be somewhat competitive but I was just redistricted into one of the most conservative districts in the state. I'm stuck for the next 10 years.