You morons...
So, the people of USA have voted to choose an another term with the president, who is bringing what used to be the greatest country in the world onto its knees (but backed by an excellent propaganda machinery, which is very adept at hiding this). Fine. As Joi says, it's a democracy and you get the leaders you deserve.
Well, at least 54 million Americans voted for Kerry. That's what, about 25% of all voters? Good for you! At least some people in the USA still can think. And a slightly bigger crowd voted for Bush. Okay, so I think you are idiots for doing that, but at least you had the decency and balls to go out and admit it. (And I'm not touching the senate and congressional elections here.)
The question to the ~47% who didn't vote: Why the fuck didn't you vote? Don't you just care what happens in that great country of yours? I mean - if you had a legit reason, then that's fine, but I can't believe in excess of 100 million Americans were "sick at home in a terrible flu", "just relocated", "abroad", or "forcibly held down by an army of yetis, thus preventing me to vote". You were just lazy bastards who don't care. You deserve all the shit that's gonna be raining on you from the government in the near future.
As the saying goes: "If you don't vote, you don't get to complain either." Voting every four years is not that big of a challenge, and it's pretty much the only way you can influence the system these days - unless you really want to get into politics. You don't even have a multi-party system: all you need to do is to pick from TWO choices. Count them! TWO! Going to a booth every four years to state your opinion is the least you can do.
So Joi is wrong. There are, in fact, three Americas: One Democrat, one Republican, and one that Simply Does Not Care. And the last party is the biggest by far. The turnout is lower than in most (all?) other civilized countries. And that is what you should be worried of.
Good luck, America. You're gonna need it.
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Don't be such a twat...we're all going to need fucking luck Janne. There are dark, dark days for us all ahead. All the Americans I know are still in disbelief or booking their relocation abroad as I type. Osama got just what he wanted and if he mangages to bleed to US economy, well...we're all fucked hard and long. So, prepare grasshopper. We're all fucked. No amount of alcohol will make this particular nightmare go away, sadly.--80.186.132.103, 04-Nov-2004
Have to say I agree with Janne. You actually have to wonder how bad things would have to get in the greatest democracy of the world for the participation in the elections to go over 66% (and that's not a lot).
And sadly, I have not heard anyone saying anything good about Bush's second term.
--Antti, 04-Nov-2004
I did not vote. Neither candidate was ideal.
However, preferring not-Bush there was still not much point in voting in a "blue" state that went to Kerry anyway. That's the joy of the electoral college system.
The scary thing, to me, is that Bush also won the popular vote. Four years ago, Gore won the popular vote and the democrats made issue of the stolen election. Now, there's not even that excuse.
I have to agree that the political propogandists have their skills finely honed.
--Jim, 04-Nov-2004
You can have never an ideal candidate, unless you run for yourself. It's a fact of life. So you choose the lesser of two evils.
For a lot of people, it wasn't about choosing between Kerry or Bush - it was choosing between anyone else or Bush.
I'm not even sure if relocation is a good answer. Running away means that the country will turn even more red, and leaves the nukes to the religious zealots. Perhaps it would be better to stay and fight?
And the reason why I'm feeling sorry for USA is that if the US economy goes down, the rest of the world goes, too (except perhaps some Asian markets). Whether we want it or not, we follow the luck of the USA. That's why I'm wishing them luck, because their luck affects us more than our own luck.
--JanneJalkanen, 05-Nov-2004
Maybe people don't vote because they get handed sh*tty candidates year after year, and some of them realize it. Much as you may dislike Bush's foreign policies, for example, Kerry's would have been little different - except maybe he would have sweet-talked European leaders more effectively into joining his illegal war in Iraq, against the will of their people (as in Spain).
Secondly, don't believe the hype. If you haven't figured out what a big fraud US elections have become - with almost one-third of voters now voting on black-box electronic voting machines (which is as stupid as dictating your vote to a stranger behind a curtain, who assures you he can be trusted to fill out the ballot according to your wishes) - you need to ask who's giving you your news, and why aren't they talking about this? It's all over the web, and not just rumors. http://www.blackboxvoting.org is a place to start; there are many more.
The media fakers like to talk about how all the exit polls were wrong, and the pollsters are apparently embarrased, as are the news organizations which wrongly trusted them. Well, funny the polls were only wrong in the states with blackbox electronic voting - the polls always favored Kerry by 5 percent or more compared with the "results". In the states with good-old paper ballots, the pollsters were within 0.1 percent of counted results!
And where there weren't electronic voting machines (the companies CEO'd by big Republican fundraisers, one of whom left his company in 2002 and "won" a "surprise" victory against a candidate for the US Senate, who had been significantly ahead in the polls), in many poor districts (where the population is overwhelmingly composed of minorities who usually vote Democratic), paper-ballot voting machines were in such disrepair that Greg Palast estimated Kerry essentially started the election 1 million votes behind, given that so many ballots would not be correctly marked, and/or not counted.
So if you thought elections were bad enough with the electoral college and monopolistic two-party system - you ain't seen nothin' yet (and if we don't get rid of these fraudulent e-voting machines, which fail the most basic of security tests - not to mention facilitating fraud and violating existing laws mandating possible recounts - then you ain't gonna see nothin' again, as far as free/honest elections in the USA are concerned.)
We in the USA hate Bush as much as you do - but you don't have to deal with the 50+ million maniacs who love the guy (or the propaganda which comes out of our so-called "free press" and other media) not to mention the 100 million others who've given up on the political process, whether out of indifference, stupidity, or both.
What do you do when almost everyone around you is either too asleep to know (or care) what's going on, too ignorant to understand it, too naive to believe it, or too cynical to do anything about it?
--Marcus, 06-Nov-2004
As for the voting machines, I found this article from 2003 to be very interesting:
The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
And what can one do? Not to give up. Talk. Do what you believe is right. Keep going. Find similarly-minded people and talk. Speak to people - the ones that are asleep must be woken up, the ones that are ignorant must be told, the ones that are naive must be educated, and the cynical must be shaken from their torpor.
If the political parties only give you options which you think are bad, you have to go and make your own leaders. It's not easy, but revolution never is.
--JanneJalkanen, 06-Nov-2004