Okay, voting doesn't work? Again. New stuff. -- Final End

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Date Posted: 00:29:41 08/28/02 Wed
Author: The Serpent
Subject: Okay, voting doesn't work? Again. New stuff.

~They must have been looking for an idiot when they found you.~

How many of you out there think this country's a democracy? -- A US Republic?

Or is it really more of a one-party state masquerading as a two-party state?

The Democrats are on the inside what the Republicans are on the outside -- each having almost identical financial backers to grease all the appropriate orifices and holes.

So maybe it's no surprise that Al Gore speaks to the desperate minded when he says things like we must rally behind our "leader" (he must use the term loosely) in this war on terrorism.

I mean, even after the day of the terrorist attacks, George Bush senior gave his own son a no confidence vote. When asked if his son was ready for the task ahead he gave that weird reptile look and said, "Oh, I don't think anybody *grunt* is ready for something like this, but he has a great team around him."

He has a great team around him?

It's the team that scares me the most.

I picture Bush watching football while Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeild, and Collen Powell discuss how they're going to widen the war, so then, they can make more money.

Did you vote for the Pentagon?
Did you vote for Wall Street?
Did you vote for a nuclear arms race?
Did you vote for the CIA?
Ever try reading the _Bill of Rights_ to a cop?

People didn't vote for star wars.
People didn't vote for drug wars.
People didn't vote for acid rain.
No one looked at the ballots and said, "Hmmm, I think I'll be homeless this year."

Hardly anyone in this country votes at all any more...

Meanwhile, people in places like China and South Africa are or were out there dying just for the right to vote.

But in America, people take it for granted and they just pout and they stay home: figuring that their wishes aren't respected anyway.

They don't make people like the popular myth of JFK any more. They don't make people like Martin Luther King any more. (And if they did, the cops would just kill 'em anyway.)

So why bother? Doesn't matter.

As the spray paint on the wall so often says:
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

After all, if the will of the majority of the eligible, or even the registered voters in this country were really respected, guess who'd be President right now?

Nobody!

No one would be President.
No one would be Senator.
No one would be Governor.
And probably no one would be D.A. or Mayor, either.

The White House would be occupied by...

.... Nobody!

Except maybe a few homeless people tired of freezing across the street.

Capitol Hill would be accountable to nobody.

(Is that such a radical change?)

"None of the above" came in second for senator in the Republican primary in Nevada a few years back. And it seems to me that there's a similar reason why dead people keep winning local elections.

How many of you pay taxes?

I pay taxes.

And the only reason I pay taxes is out of fear of getting busted for not paying taxes.

But I would gladly pay those taxes, and maybe quite a bit more when I could, if I knew that money were being used for real needs of real people.

And I used to think it was completely useless to vote. But (NOW) I wanted to get into it for this reason: local ballot initiatives. State ballot initiatives.

Like:

"Yes or no on rent control"...
"Yes or no on domestic partners"...
"Yes or no on pollution control."

Things that we can decide for ourselves because the people we put in power are too chicken to do it on their own.

Urban renewal and youth centers instead of drug wars and Nazis with guns and boot camps.

And, [another reason to vote] keeping Bible-thumping bigots from sneaking onto your local school boards.

And, who can deny how delicious it tastes to vote down another sports stadium?

And just imagine what could happen if there was a spot in every office on every ballot where you could check off "None of the Above!!"

And if "None of the Above" came in first, they would have to have a special election like they do when a congressman dies or resigns or something, and only new candidates could run... instead of the bozos that got rejected the first time.

Think of the possibilities. We already vote "yes or no" on judges. Do you think George Dudya and his creepy crew would be so sadistic towards our daily lives if we got to vote "yes or no" on them every four years?

It's quite fare to say that no one was going to be satisfied with the 2000/2001 election. And about sixty-four percent, in a CBS exit poll, said that they were dissatisfied with the existing nominees.

So this is not such an unpopular idea...

The last Soviet Union elections were more democratic than ours.

Instead of picking the lesser of two evils, (like having to choose between Bush and Gore for president and then running to the nearest toilet), people who voted were crossing off all the candidates rejected, so they even voted out people running unopposed!

And no election was valid if less than half the people voted.

The result?

Out of fifteen races for the Congress of People's Deputies, nearly two hundred had to be rerun.

But just like over there, getting rid of the crooks and turning things around for real will probably require a revolution.

The kind of revolution that the people of Rumania, Czechoslovakia, and Nicaragua thought was impossible until they actually went out and did it.

The kind that will only happen over here when more people realize that overthrowing the rich is not just in our own best interest:

it's a hell of a lot of fun!

In the meantime, it's not a bad idea to pay attention and to react to those local ballot propositions in your own back yard before someone else does it for you.

And maybe start getting those petitions together to make "No Confidence--None of the Above" a choice on every ballot for every office in the country.

Wouldn't take that much time, wouldn't take that much money, and it sure as hell beats staying home... pouting... turning on the television... and being greeted by the third Bush.

Voting Doesn't Work

Voting doesn't work -- 1, 2, 3
It's time you know your enemy
I don't pledge allegiance to hypocrisy
Your democracy is not for me

So, when we try to change this place
Courtroom pulls an about face
Fantasies of the master race
Our elections they erase

See, once upon a time we were all free
When we lived under self autonomy
We could even rise above
To peace and harmony
And everything for the good of family

Yeah, cancer people can smoke weed
People voted to be free
But the fascist rule decree
Pigs taking down you and me

Voting doesn't work

Why?

When they don't like what we say
Then they stop it in the courts

President this, president that
Represent the ruling class
One says this, one says that
Sounds the same
What choice is that?

See, voting doesn't work -- 1, 2, 3,
Coming from a nation that says we are free
How can you choose
If you don't have a choice?
How can you choose
If you don't have a voice?

Yeah, interest games, and interests seized
Secret power fuelled by greed
Fear or cash
Cash for fear
Green-span is the ruler here

A pig is a pig
And they took it away
And I don't give a fuck
About the things they say
It doesn't mean shit to me
Voting doesn't work
It's easy to see -- that

Voting doesn't work

Why?

When they don't like what we say
Then they stop it in the courts

Voting doesn't work
I have seen
Along with plies of broken treaties
Your reality produces poverty - spiritually
In a nation of greed

Well, who is working -- who is not?
Do votes count?
At this point, I think not
Doesn't matter what we say
Things will always go their way

Power to the people
Is just a fantasy
And they sell it to us
As an American Dream

Well, your vote counts -- 1, 2, 3,
Living in democracy
Everybody here is free
Cuz it's built for you
And it's built for me

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Replies:

people can rise above... -- shauna, 10:32:31 08/28/02 Wed
- Re: people can rise above... -- Sue da babe, 22:39:29 08/28/02 Wed
- Re: Is there in political rock bands in Canada? Just wondering. -- The Serpent, 23:58:40 08/28/02 Wed
  - Re: Is there ANY political rock bands in Canada? Just wondering. -- The Serpent, 00:02:05 08/29/02 Thu
  - I'm sure there is... -- shauna, 21:42:53 08/29/02 Thu
    - Re: I found one called The Forgotten Rebels. -- The Serpent, 00:44:00 08/31/02 Sat