was curious on what you think about voting/non voting and....well...
if you vote?
I always vote as in my state voter majorities approve all tax increases and in a city of 300K folks some of these tax increases are decided by fewer than 400 votes. For the voter initiatives I vote because I hate voter initiatives. For federal elections, I write in friends of mine. For state and local elections I leave those blank where I can not write in candidates.
Yes because there is a difference between not wanting state control over me, and refraining from excercsising the littel control I have.
It's like this; I'm an anarchist and I would take post ww2 America over England ca 1067 +/-
In States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it. ... In short, a law everywhere and for everything!
~Peter Kropotkin
Sure. It's slightly better than being fined for not voting, and where I live the Upper House is such that small parties can get in and hold the governing party to ransom, so it's not necessarily useless.
Nah, there's no point where I live. You can vote for the ruling party, which sucks, or the opposition, which has exactly the same policies as the ruling party, but promises to somehow carry them out more effectively/less corruptly/more efficiently. Screw them.
I vote if I can write in someone because the candidates who are running usually suck. To illustrate, I'm going to write in Ron Paul because the Constitutional Party's candidate sucks this year and Harry Brown was the last good LP candidate. I'm not going to vote in the GOP Senate Primary because the 2 candidates suck equally. I did vote in the GOP Presidential Primary even though it was probably rigged and even though the chances that my vote would make any difference are very slim.
In the VA Senate elections last year, both candidates sucked and I believe they were the only two so I didn't vote.
Nope. Voted once, thought it was stupid, never did it again. That was actually long before I became an anarchist.
I have before. I am not ant-voting, though 99% of the time I find it near useless
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
Meh, sometimes. You definitely have more pull in local elections. I'm actually trying to build a coalition between local libertarians and progressives, so we can maybe oust the Republocrats, and get some real radicalism going in my town!
For sure on the local stuff. I think when ppeople say "I don't vote" they are thinking of this huge metahysical abstract thing of electing the president and changing worldpolicies or something.
But as far as your local communities are concerned you are tied to it, and it becomes a very real thing to think about and deal with. I think across the board anarchists, left libs, right libs, etc ought to be able to agree on the fact that localized voting is a hell of a lot better than all that federalized crap that is out there.
do you really think if you voted in say, obama over....romney or anyone else, or w.e. that that would change everything.....? like, the people who supported obamas campaign are the same people he has to be accountable as if romney was in office, and if he wasn't during the campaign would learn fast to support them....that's why voting doesn't matter....and if you vote someone who is immune to those things then you just have pure chaos and ron paul or someone else will be remembered as being the person to sink with the ship and will put us all way back behind....
does that make sense?
small differences. nothing major. but still, the efficacy is not the point. The point is that I'm given a small amount of legitimate power, and I'm going to use it.
The last time I voted was when Harry Browne ran in 2000.
I considered voting in 2002 but became an AnCap and decided to refrain from voting indefinitely.
You can vote for ron paul. Hes an anarcho capitalist. Even though we cant vote to abolish the govenrment, we can at least move a step closer, and that is limiting and minimizing governments role in our lives ------->Ron Paul.
“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence.""The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”
http://voluntaryistreader.wordpress.org
I voted in a referendum once. I voted 'NO'.
I haven't voted since the 2008 primaries and have since become unregistered due to moving. I'd only ever consider voting for a reduction in state power or against increases but find the whole process morally questionable regardless.
I've been eligle to vote since the mid-90s and have never voted. Back then I never paid attention to politics, didn't know what a democrat or republican was, and never heard the term anarchy. Today I pay little attention to politics, know that there is little difference between the democrats and republicans, and know that those two parties are running our country into the ground.