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I was trying to explain on blackboxvoting.org why we don't have a democracy or a republic, and why, due to that fact, even if we had honest elections, I wouldn't vote.
The discussion began at the first link, where I thoughtlessly hijacked a thread, and then continued at the second link when I began a new thread.
My argument has basically been that in a democracy the people hold the ultimate power of government and we do not have a democracy, and that in a republic, which is still a form of democracy, the people still have hold the ultimate power of government, but they exercise their will through their elected representatives, and therefore we do not have a republic either, because we have no way to hold our representatives accountable.
It was interesting to see somebody on the right spell it out in no uncertain terms.
Even if we had honest elections, which we do not, I would not vote for petty tyrants, dictators, or despots. If we had honest elections I would happily vote for respresentatives I could hold accountable, but I see no point in voting for people who won't represent me.
I find it interesting that so many people have accepted the prevailing theory, and despite knowing that our elections cannot be secured from insider fraud or outright theft, devote a lot of time and energy debating which tyrant or dictator might be less despotic or more benevolent, and urging people to vote for that candidate, even though there is no way to hold them accountable if it should turn out that they aren't less despotic or more benevolent after all.
I don't think we should vote in rigged elections where our votes can be flipped to candidates we didn't vote for by the privately-owned computers that tally 80% of all U.S. votes, and where the Supreme Court doesn't even have to allow our votes to be counted or take them into consideration in selecting a president. I spent many years in the struggle for open, honest, free, fair, fully transparent elections, until it dawned on me that I was fighting for the right to vote for people who were not obligated to represent me. That, for me, was the final straw, and I stopped voting and began urging everyone I could to boycott the November election.
I find the prevailing theory unacceptable. Living in what I believed was a republic rather than a democracy was bad enough, but I will not vote for tyranny and I don't think any freedom-loving person should either.
So let's hear from all those who think they have a way to hold their representatives accountable. What have you managed to do in the past seven years to get them to represent you? And if they won't represent you, why do you want to continue to vote for them? Do you think that getting a few good people into local or state government, or even into Congress, will change the system? Do you think that if your vote isn't counted or is flipped to a candidate you didn't vote for, you had a voice in government?
Do you really want to grant your mandate to a government that you cannot hold accountable? When you vote, you make it look to the world as if you are happy with the prevailing theory and don't want a voice in government, that you trust the people you're voting for more than you trust yourself. Do you? Do you think they're smarter than you, more competent than you, understand things better than you, and have better judgment than you do? Because if you do, you may be right. Some people really aren't capable of self-governance and neither want, need, nor deserve a democratic form of government. Those who will settle for tyranny, as long as they have the right to hope that their vote might have been counted towards the tyrant they preferred, will always get the tyranny they vote for.
A pity there are still enough to them to make it look as if Americans really don't care, because some of us still do.
