Why I'm not voting

A friend of mine's blog (I felt) took a direct jab at me because I don't plan on voted. Reasons were requested/demanded. This was initially published as a comment to his post, but I figured I'd put it up here too, just in case anyone was wondering. Feel free to try to tell me I'm wrong on ANY of these points, much less all of them.

"Before I start the requested reasons I'm not voting, I'm also reserving my right to complain about whoever IS elected. "But if you don't vote, you can't complain!" Bullshit. I not only hear people who voted for Gore complain about Bush, but I hear people who voted for Bush complain about Bush. SO, voting in general seems to have no sway whatsoever on a person's ability to bitch. Besides, it's the American way. Now, onto why I'm not voting, just to put your mind as ease in as concise a format as possible:

1) Politicians are liars. Period, end of sentence. They used to be lawyers! They say what they think will get them the votes they need to get (re)elected. You like Candidate A's tax break plan? Great! Wonderful! Fantastic! It's BUUUUUULLLLLLLshit. He's not going to implement it, and he just may do the opposite. Roll the dice, have a good time. Not for me, thanks.

2) They're overpaid. They're comped everything and anything, I'm sure. They have a roof over their heads and a half dozen chaufeurs and pilots to take them anywhere. Why do they need multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars a year? More importantly, why do they need that much after retiring? That money would be better spend on a multitude of things.

3) The president may be the single most powerful man in the world, but he's still severely limited in his ability to enact anything. Even if he genuinely wanted to implement the above-mentioned tax break, congress would go "Nuh-uh. That'd mean a pay cut for us. Not gonna happen."

4) For a similar reason as 3, the president couldn't really do too much to fuck-up or boost-up our country on his own. Too many checks and balances. A great man would still be slowed down by the morons in the Senate and the House of Reps, and a dictator would likewise be halted in his tracks. So if congress is around to pretty much keep him at an even-keel, what difference does it make who's at the helm?

5) Our vote really DOESN'T count. I don't care what you say. We don't vote for president. We vote for republican or democrat, and then someone who's supposed to vote for republican or democrat goes and votes (in theory) for that side. But they don't have to. On top of that, if a given candidate gets, what, 5 or 6 given states, the other states are irrelevant; he's already gotten all the votes he needs out of those states. That's why a winner can be predicted before the polls have even closed on the west coast. "Oh, but the 2000 election was decided by less than 3000 votes." Right, Because the electoral congress was so evenly sided that the one or so votes that those 3000 votes would have created made the difference.

6) It is a priviledge to vote, not a duty. No one goes around yelling at people who don't drive, but it could very easily be argued that multiple people's decision to drive or not to drive could have quite a profound effect on our country. And if anyone out there DOES get on a non-driver's case, shut up. We have enough pollution as it is.

7) The fact that we have a bipartisan system is absurd. Why should politicians be labeled "democrat" or "republican?" What makes the distinction? Are there really any fine lines anymore? It seems to me that many democrats hold republican ideals and vice-versa. However, because there IS such a thing as democrat or republican, people will vote for that categorization rather than a president. That's a great way to be, right?

8) Plato ranked democracy as the second lowest form of government, just above anarchy. And with good reason. What do you or I know about government spending? How can we begin to know what tax plan is best, not for ourselves (God forbid), but for the country? How can any joe-blow american pretend to know how to deal with the situation in Iraq? Oh, yeah, I forgot. We're supposed to educate ourselves. Well, unfortunately, the only way to educate ourselves without bias is to put ourselves in that given situation, and I personally have no desire to go to Iraq right about now. People talk incessantly as if they new what they were talking about, and politicians talk to us as though we can even begin to understand the topics they're discussing. Oh, wait a sec... some people think they actually do.

9) The system, unfortunately, is nigh-impossible to change. It would entail NOT ONLY playing the system's game for a number of years just to get to a position of enough power to effect a change, but getting MULTIPLE other people who feel similarly to do so in other check and balance positions so that the change you're trying to effect doesn't get vetoed. Oh, and all that's presuming that you can either A) convince the american public that these off-the-wall ideas you have are what's best for them and the country despite the inordinate amount of long-term-faith that would require, or B) bullshit them enough that they choose your bullshit over your competitors.

Are those enough reasons not to vote? 'Cause I can keep going... Now, all you people that do vote, that's fine; fantastic; good for you. We need people to vote, because if NO ONE voted, no one'd get elected, etc, etc. I understand that. However, don't jump MY shit because I'm exercising my decision to NOT have to pick between two liars who stand on polar opposite sides of certain issues of which I will never have any degree of knowledge or appropriation, in addition to the fact that whatever they say they will do vs. what they actually will try to do is kept in an almost constant state of stalemate by the wonderful people in congress who are more obsessed with getting themselves raises and staying in office than in actually doing any good for our country. I have a better way to spend my Tuesday, thank you."