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• What to do instead? (Score:2)

  by autarch (914)

  I really really hate advice along these lines. Yes, the system is completely corrupt, and no one of true integrity can get far enough to be voted for. So what should we do?

  Simply saying "don't vote for Obama" is spectacularly useless. The question is not what we shouldn't do, but rather what we can do to change things.

  My take on this is that this year, if you care about improving the world a little, you might as well vote for Obama. He sucks, but sucks a little less than McCain, and there's no other viable
  • Re: (Score:1)

    by chromatic (983)

    He sucks, but sucks a little less than McCain, and there's no other viable choices.

    That attitude is why there are no other viable choices.

    I can't, in good conscience, vote for either McCain or Obama, because I believe they both:

    • Deliberately misunderstand the purpose of the presidency (why should the chief executive have a legislative agenda?)
    • Have spent the past two years ignoring their elected responsibilities to run for president (who's represented the people of Arizona and Illinois since January 2007?
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by autarch (914)

      I'm not disagreeing. Not voting is a perfectly acceptable choice. Hopefully you do more than _not voting_ to further your social agenda, though.

      Again, instead of saying "don't vote", you could say "don't vote, there are many more important things you could do instead, here's a few of them you can start doing right now ..."
      • Re: (Score:1)

        by chromatic (983)

        Not voting is a perfectly acceptable choice.

        I'm not voting for McCain or Obama. That leaves plenty of other candidates for whom I could vote.

        Hopefully you do more than _not voting_ to further your social agenda, though.

        Indeed I do, but I don't want credit for it, and I try not to call attention to it. Perhaps that leaves me open to charges of grandstanding or hypocrisy, but answer me this: why spend so much time and money and worry hoping that "change" will happen after you elect a guy who has, at bes
        • Re:What to do instead? (Score:2)

          by autarch (914) on 2008.11.01 16:19 (#65658) Homepage Journal

          I don't disagree with anything you said.

          My original point was that telling people "don't vote for Obama", absent any other advice, is a terrible thing to do, and it pisses me of.

          How about saying something with more substance ...

          Voting for Obama or not isn't that important. There are lot of things you can do which will have a much greater impact on the world right now. They're a little harder than voting, but they also have a much greater impact. If you care about social change, you can help make it happen, but you have to do more than just vote.

          Then you can find out what someone is concerned about and steer them towards ways to become active for a real cause (getting Obama elected is not a cause!).

          FWIW, I tell people things like this all the time, it's cornerstone of how my animal rights group approaches activism. We're all about getting individuals to make changes that have a real impact, right now.

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          • Re: (Score:1)

            by chromatic (983)

            How about saying something with more substance ...

            I agree completely. I would consider more seriously any candidate who said that and whose campaign actually demonstrated that attitude with actions.