Subject: "Why Voting and Movement Building Go Hand-in-Hand" plus one
more
I have not been seeing much point in my voting at the federal level these days, to be honest. I happen to live in a part of the country where there seems very little chance that any of the politicians in whose jurisdictions I reside is going anywhere any time soon. Their competitors don't have a chance. Your situation in regard to your federal officers may differ, or you may be in the same situation or in a situation where none of the candidates on the ballot remotely represent you, really, though one might seem a better candidate than another in relatively minor details.
For example, in my case my primary interest or one of my primary interests in the federal government is getting the military budget reduced, instead of reducing the budget for everything else but that. And that's even with me knowing a bit about what actions those people are taking and encouraging others to take to provide us with an arguable basis for fear.*
Your main concerns might be different. You might be focused on reducing your taxes, for example, though that appears to me to have something close to the same likelihood of happening as an overall reduction in the U.S. military budget, especially since the military budget still supports around half of our economy one way or another, not just in finance but also in jobs in different places around the country and the world.
So, I have to say, this article makes some sense to me:
"Why Voting and Movement Building Go Hand-in-Hand"
This one may shed some additional light. Note that it is about the goings on in Hong Kong lately, not the United States. But I don't think you'll find the concerns totally foreign; I hope not. Hong Kong has been a seriously cosmopolitan place for a long time, a place where many or most have Internet access as good or better than ours and know much of what goes on in other parts of the world aside from the local TV channels.
"My Responses to the 10 Things They Say About Occupy Central Students," by Wong Sze Wai, October 1, 2014.
Today, you may still think that politics is abstract. Tomorrow, when you finally realise that politics is affecting your everyday life, it may be too late
The big point she makes is that who our powers that be are makes and will continue to make a great difference in our daily lives even if we think we can really ignore them. So maybe there is more that we might want do besides choosing between the limited choices in the major parties or voting for someone whom we know has no chance of being elected. If you think about it you might have other good ways of adding to the discussion in addition to thinking about elections even though of course some people might end up hating you for trying to open their cocoons.
Of course local elections are local and often important regardless of the federal election possibilities. That might be something not to ignore even if you decide to ignore federal elections because of the particular choices or non-choices where you reside or for some other reason.
* You could find my message of October 4, 2014, "major, on the seriously negative effects of fear" to be somewhat related.
Larry
--
Larry at Blogspot "undisclosed recipients" email message archive, no logging in, no public comments
It's really not that Fox News must die. It is that you pick up a lot of very stupid propaganda from watching Fox News. Link, please click.
I have not been seeing much point in my voting at the federal level these days, to be honest. I happen to live in a part of the country where there seems very little chance that any of the politicians in whose jurisdictions I reside is going anywhere any time soon. Their competitors don't have a chance. Your situation in regard to your federal officers may differ, or you may be in the same situation or in a situation where none of the candidates on the ballot remotely represent you, really, though one might seem a better candidate than another in relatively minor details.
For example, in my case my primary interest or one of my primary interests in the federal government is getting the military budget reduced, instead of reducing the budget for everything else but that. And that's even with me knowing a bit about what actions those people are taking and encouraging others to take to provide us with an arguable basis for fear.*
Your main concerns might be different. You might be focused on reducing your taxes, for example, though that appears to me to have something close to the same likelihood of happening as an overall reduction in the U.S. military budget, especially since the military budget still supports around half of our economy one way or another, not just in finance but also in jobs in different places around the country and the world.
So, I have to say, this article makes some sense to me:
"Why Voting and Movement Building Go Hand-in-Hand"
This one may shed some additional light. Note that it is about the goings on in Hong Kong lately, not the United States. But I don't think you'll find the concerns totally foreign; I hope not. Hong Kong has been a seriously cosmopolitan place for a long time, a place where many or most have Internet access as good or better than ours and know much of what goes on in other parts of the world aside from the local TV channels.
"My Responses to the 10 Things They Say About Occupy Central Students," by Wong Sze Wai, October 1, 2014.
Today, you may still think that politics is abstract. Tomorrow, when you finally realise that politics is affecting your everyday life, it may be too late
The big point she makes is that who our powers that be are makes and will continue to make a great difference in our daily lives even if we think we can really ignore them. So maybe there is more that we might want do besides choosing between the limited choices in the major parties or voting for someone whom we know has no chance of being elected. If you think about it you might have other good ways of adding to the discussion in addition to thinking about elections even though of course some people might end up hating you for trying to open their cocoons.
Of course local elections are local and often important regardless of the federal election possibilities. That might be something not to ignore even if you decide to ignore federal elections because of the particular choices or non-choices where you reside or for some other reason.
* You could find my message of October 4, 2014, "major, on the seriously negative effects of fear" to be somewhat related.
Larry
--
Larry at Blogspot "undisclosed recipients" email message archive, no logging in, no public comments
It's really not that Fox News must die. It is that you pick up a lot of very stupid propaganda from watching Fox News. Link, please click.
