I Take Two Votes...

In which Y'r Obs'r'v't P'rt'c'p't extols the virtues of "wasting your vote" on "unelectables" as a way of getting TWO votes for the price of one...

"At my back I always here Time's wing'ed chariot hurrying near." That was the Cavalier poet, sir Andrew Marvell, beseeching his coy mistress to relinquish her favors and succumb to his ardor. It is the archetype of that trope named "Carpe Diem," or "sieze the day." But it also, I think, might characterize how many American voters feel, with the inevitable necessity of voting for President looming ever larger. The choices are horrible and time is running out. It will be on us in a twinkling, though it will seem like an eternity.

Of course, since 2000, there have been apparent, and largely uninvestigated irregularities in the conduct and the counting of the vote--in numerous states, in at least two out of the last three presidential elections. These imputations of "dishonesty, if not out-right vote rigging and miscounting, have somewhat tarnished the luster of our "American birthright," the right to vote, which our bombs and soldiers have carried abroad now to benighted countries all over the world for more than 50 years!  It's a sacred trust...No, really...

So it occurred to me that, when all is said and done, it is the ACT of voting, itself, which matters, is meaningful; not for whom the vote is cast--especially in national 'elections,' where at least two of the last three were stolen by vote-counting software and corrupt officials in different states.

It's a myth that any single ballot "matters." They "count" only in the aggregate, and the importance is regulated by the degree of dispersion. Nobody's single ballot makes a shitting-bit of difference, nationally. It's utterly symbolic.

 That's why, this year, I am encouraging people to "vote" ABD! ("Anybody But Duopolists,");  anybody OTHER than the "approved" candidate of the GOPhux or the DIMS.

So, if you REALLY REALLY wanna vote for Ron Paul, do it! Let me encourage you. Or Rocky Anderson, or Cynthia McKinney, or Jill Stein, or your local weatherman. I'd write-in Budreaux, the dog, if I could.

This tactic seems to me to be preferable to abstaining, for the single reason that, as things stand, nobody NOTICES when you just blow it off.  There's no RECORD of your disenchantment.

 What I'd REALLY like to see is a "significant" turn-out of "Neither of these fuckers." Or None of the above, as it's known in polite company. That expedient is on ballots in Nevada. If just one STATE were to "Just say NO!"

TEN percent would be a huge number. But it's incredibly unlikely. The four top, non-duopoly vote-getters in 2008 managed to capture fewer than TWO million votes, total, out of more than 131 MILLION ballots (allegedly) cast; the total of votes cast for ALL non-Duopolist candidates amounted to less that about one-and-a-half percent of the total.

The beauty of this plan, from the individual voter's perspective is that it amounts to having two votes, legally.
One for your favorite dreamy idealist or racist scumbag, and one explicltly and unambiguously AGAINST the candidates of Empire.

SO go forth, hippies. SWING THAT BALLOT! VOTE your conscience!

Vote enthusiastically for the Flying Monkey Party, or the Tree-hugger Party. Or Ron Paul. Here's your chance. It's the only way to GO on record as being disgusted with the "choices" they give you, and be secure in the knowledge that it doesn't really matter, at all...

We can follow the returns at a bistro near the beach...