"voting is more than just the core responsibility of citizenship...it is an act of defiance..."

www.nytimes.com...

This year, voting is more than just the core responsibility of citizenship; it is an act of defiance against malicious political forces determined to reduce access to democracy. Millions of ballots on Tuesday — along with those already turned in — will be cast despite the best efforts of Republican officials around the country to prevent them from playing a role in the 2012 election.


Even now, many Republicans are assembling teams to intimidate voters at polling places, to demand photo ID where none is required, and to cast doubt on voting machines or counting systems whose results do not go their way...

...a great deal of damage has already been done, and the clearest example is that on Sunday in Florida, people will not be allowed to vote early. Four years ago, on the Sunday before Election Day, tens of thousands of Floridians cast their ballots, many of them black churchgoers who traveled directly from services to their polling places. Because most of them voted for Barack Obama, helping him win the state, Republicans eliminated early voting on that day. No legitimate reason was given; the action was entirely partisan in nature.

More at link.

This cannot be underscored enough.

Not since the fifties and sixties has the U.S. seen such Draconian and Fascist efforts to subvert the voting rights of the American populace.

It shocks me that in the year 2012 this is so blatant and widespread.

I guess when your ideas are re-treaded and mostly failed and your candidate is less than motivational and not even slightly inspirational, this is what happens - you resort to trickery and discard the Constitution and any illusion of democracy you might once have held dear.

It's easy to see who these tactics are aimed at - the working poor, minorities and women - all of whom typically need to make some sort of arrangement to accommodate voting, whether it's time off of work or child care.

I really think the GOP is dead. I think Obama will win (narrowly) and in the resulting backlash there will be a culling of the exclusionary old guard GOP. In hindsight, they will see that these sorts of tactics cost them minority, moderate independent and swing votes.

voting is to give the slaves the illusion they have a voice in government and "freedom" ... in reality it doesnt mean a damn thing the game is rigged... time people flipped the table and end the game... wont happen as the mindless masses believe the lies their fed and the charade continues....

reply to post by Expat888


I honestly get tired of that argument. It gets us nowhere...it's just the perennial whine of the disaffected.

Just because one refuses to play the game doesn't mean the game stops being played.

Until a new paradigm is established, this is what we got. And I do agree - we need a new thing...consciousness, system, whatever. Until then, this is it.

Regardless of who you vote for - just go vote.

People in this country have died in pursuit of this goal. Still more people around the globe, particularly women, are fighting for it.