Votes Count, a post by The Infamous Brad
It’s true. It matters. Sometimes it really does come down to a few votes. You never know. Brad’s breakdown of Missouri’s election math sounds like a huge margin, but I’ve heard of smaller ones.
Look, here’s how I think of it: there is no other point in day-to-day life where governments go out of their way to ask you, “Hey, so, what do you think?” And all you have to do to answer is spend some time going to your polling place (and when I’ve lived in cities, this has been super-convenient for me; I don’t think I’ve ever lived further than three or four blocks from my polling place), punch a few holes or draw a few lines or whatever system your state uses, and there you go.
The rest of the year, you have to go out of your way to write a letter, not sound crazy in your letter if you want it to be taken seriously, know what you’re actually talking about in your letter if you want it to be taken seriously, figure out who to send it to, and get it in a mailbox. Or you have to call a number and go through some crazy option tree, or wait on hold for who knows how long. I dunno, voting seems way more convenient. I can do it when I want on that day, and legally my job has to give me time off to do it if I can’t do it on my off hours. I may have to wait in line, but the actually voting process takes less than five minutes.
Your government isn’t going to listen to you unless you talk to them, and voting day is as close as they’re going to get to walking up to your front door and saying hello. Here, let me say it again in a more crude manner: Voting day is the only day the government is going to give you a blowjob or eat you out, instead of expecting you to do so to them, so while maybe they’re not that good at getting you off, they won’t get better unless you tell them what you want and what you like. Otherwise, you will continue to get lackluster stimulation year in, year out. If you didn’t vote in the primaries, please vote in the Presidentals in November. Thank you.
PS. I’m talking to Americans here, I know, but same thing applies if you have any ability to vote in your country and your government isn’t made totally of assholes that will disregard the results. If yours is such a government, or if you don’t have a vote, I’m sorry. Please look into your local samizdat.
