Quote:
Originally posted by Easytiger
How can you possibly have a democracy where people don't vote? The whole point of democracy is that people take an active role in choosing leaders, and that everybody HAS TO HAVE A SAY. Like Bundy said, we have compulsory voting here in Australia, and it's a damn good idea.
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Be careful what you say. There is no true democracy anywhere in the world (feel free to point out any country I might have missed). The USA is, for example, a democratic republic.
Now, I'll admit I had an opportunity to vote in 2000 and 2002, but didn't. Why? Because I felt that an uneducated vote was worse than not voting. I accepted that complaining about my later-elected representative would not really be politically correct.
Why didn't I trust my own opinions about the elections in question? I still think elections, generally, are too much of a smoke screen. Candidates rarely seem to have a clear stance on everything I care about. Debates usually confuse me about what the candidate(s) really think/believe. Newspapers print conflicting or misleading information. And so on.
I'm also paralyzed by not caring when it comes to "primary elections" that are specific to a party. That should, in my opinion, be left either to the party's internal process, or all the party's candidates should appear on the ballot.
Perhaps I'll give it more than a few hours' effort on research for the next US Presidential election. Hopefully there will be more choice.. I'm tired of seeing candidates that only match up to me about 75% of the way or less. Four choices is just not enough for 280 million people!