"majority" was a vindication of his fiscal policy

If you don't vote you can't have an opinion on it. The 19% number is meaningless. It's just a way to make your point look better.

 
strigori said:
Voting majority is all that counts. Those who didn't vote can STFU. Voting at least gives you the right to complain, if you didn't vote, you forfeited that right.
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Are you serious with this? In this country you *never* forfeit that right. Voting is a choice that everyone is free to exercise, or not.

 
zoogies said:
strigori said:
Voting majority is all that counts. Those who didn't vote can STFU. Voting at least gives you the right to complain, if you didn't vote, you forfeited that right.
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Are you serious with this? In this country you *never* forfeit that right. Voting is a choice that everyone is free to exercise, or not.
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Alright. They can complain all they want. They just don't have the right to have people care about their opinion. Especially when it comes to policy of the people they failed to vote for or against.

 
Moiraine said:
zoogies said:
strigori said:
Voting majority is all that counts. Those who didn't vote can STFU. Voting at least gives you the right to complain, if you didn't vote, you forfeited that right.
Click to expand...
Are you serious with this? In this country you *never* forfeit that right. Voting is a choice that everyone is free to exercise, or not.
Click to expand...
Alright. They can complain all they want. They just don't have the right to have people care about their opinion. Especially when it comes to policy of the people they failed to vote for or against.
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George Carlin begs to differ.

 
No. That's frankly absurd. Opinions ought to be evaluated on their own merits and have nothing to do with whether someone voted or not.

Champion the idea of voting, that's fine, but this kind of talk is just damaging. "Voting majority is all that counts"? The idea that if you didn't choose to vote that you are no longer allowed to participate in the civic discussions that are so important at every level in this country? Where does this even come from?

 
zoogies said:
No. That's frankly absurd. Opinions ought to be evaluated on their own merits and have nothing to do with whether someone voted or not.

Champion the idea of voting, that's fine, but this kind of talk is just damaging. "Voting majority is all that counts"? The idea that if you didn't choose to vote that you are no longer allowed to participate in the civic discussions that are so important at every level in this country? Where does this even come from?
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i agree. most of our votes do not count anyways. it is still all of our country.

 
What about married couples - one republican, one democrat - who chose not to vote because there's no point when you know you're just being cancelled out? Do they not get to complain?

 
Nope. Didn't vote, don't b!^@h about the outcome. You had your chance to have a say, and didn't. Is it necessarily going to matter? Maybe not depending on where you live, but that attitude in and of itself keeps some politicians in their jobs. At least you had your say.

How do you shape civics discussions? By electing the people to run the 'civics.' Just talking about something, then not doing anything about it...Why did you even discuss anything in the first place?

All of our laws and policy come from either our elected officials, or from ballot initiatives. If you didn't vote, you chose to stay silent on the matter. And silence is acceptance.

 
I can't even begin to describe how strongly and thoroughly I disagree with that sentiment.

Any excuse to suppress discussion from any angle, really detestable, in my opinion. Not being able to combat a discussion with your own ideas and resorting to irrelevant sniping tactics is really weak. Or if the angle is instead an attempt to shame or criticize those who don't exercise their right to not vote -- being one of many things that is not compulsory and should never be -- also pretty weak.

People should never be bullied into having an opinion, or not having one. Or be told what their opinion is.

 
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Why discuss something if you are going to stay silent when it counts? If someone feels strongly enough to actually have a debate on an issue, then they should feel strongly enough to have their say in shaping the community to their views. Why is that person even bothering?

I'm not telling anyone they have to have an opinion, or what their opinion is. I'm not trying to 'suppress' any discussion. I'm saying if you have a strong opinion on issues, get out and fricken vote. You can't effect a thing by staying silent when it counts.

 
I believe the term is "backseat driver." Nobody likes a backseat driver. But in America, we don't get to tell the backseat drivers to shut up. They get to have their say, whether they vote or not.

It doesn't make them less stupid for bitching about something they could take a direct involvement in, but choose not to. It just makes their stupidity public when they announce they didn't vote, but go on to b!^@h about the state of things.

 
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