Tag: Afghanistan

RANT! Why don’t Americans vote?

RANT! Why don’t Americans vote?

America is the birthplace of the modern voting experience. Yes, I know ancient Greece voted for their Senators but their was a pretty big gap between then and when the entire government was elected by the people.

But for all of this heritage we seem to have lost the appetite for voting. Our voter turnout for the last couple of elections is pretty abysmal and is shamed by the latest Iraqi election where about 70% exercised their right to vote. The Afghanistan people also had an 80+% turnout when they elected their first President in 2004.

For the US, our elected officials cannot say that they were elected by the majority of their constituents but rather were elected by the majority (or plurality in some cases) of those who bothered to show up.

So why is this? Why don’t we give a s–t?

I had a teacher many decades ago that said that if you don’t vote then you don’t have the right to complain about anything the government does. Made sense back then and it still does.

AMERICANS: EITHER VOTE OR SHUTUP!

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