Does Voting Matter?
Jeff Pope begins an article titled “Does Voting Matter Anymore?” with “Since President Obama’s inauguration” and then proceeds to give a litany of various awful things have happened as a consequence of the change in administrations.
Asked and answered.
via Glenn Reynolds
I think the implied question was “Does voting matter when I’m not the one who wins?”
Is there anything in the linked piece that even warrants discussion by reasonable people?
Hey, it was linked on Instapudendum’s site–asked and answered.
don’t get me wrong, our form of government should be more responsive to the interests of citizens (citizens, not corporations)outside of the election period, thus i agree with him on the charge of arrogance (although apparently he feels this problem is confined to the democrats only). but without offering anything else than the thinly veiled threat of revolution because he doesn’t get his way strikes me as unproductive. (akin to the accusations of voter fraud after the 2004 elections, from the dem. side.)
and then there’s this:
see, its bits like this that make me believe that parts of the right are going off the rails. there were elections in this country and their side lost. i really don’t know what majority he is talking about.
Not in Illinois, it doesn’t!
BTW…. did anyone see the name “David Axelrod” on the ballot for president?
Voting is for yellow-bellied liberals.
So suddenly, a litany of various awful things have happened as a consequence of Obama’s election isn’t a valid topic, even though a litany of various awful things have happened as a consequence of Bush’s election was.
What an interesting list of thing liberals consdier ‘unreasonable’ anymore. Add that to discussions of Obama’s actions and their constitutionality, I guess.
Hmmm. Now that I look at it, there seems a trend, here.
Ah James, what a delectable sense of irony you have in raising the question of Does Voting Matter? Linking to Jeff Pope’s article in Pajama Media was absolutely brilliant.
The short answer is Yes and No.
There is hope, for a leader may arise from the ashes who will recognize that facile personal attacks on spending such as “Nancy Pelosi’s Mouse†rather than a reasonable discussion on San Francisco Bay wetlands will just infuriate the educated class.
But then, if you are a conservative ideologue, you really do not need an educated class. All problems and policy are solved by ideology, and neither intellectual capacity, nor credentials are of importance. Thus we get Jeff Pope who seems to be a tad bit paranoid, to wit:
Shorter Jeff Pope: This SOB is gonna raise my taxes!
Like retaining enemy combatants without habeas corpus at GITMO East (Bagram)?, “enhanced interrogation” (with loopholes for the CIA should the need arise)?, rendition?, wire taps?. That’s just the “mostly over there” stuff that comes to mind that was once the root of all hatred towards the US…lowered our standing in the world and whatnot. While I certainly don’t see any praise from the left about those issues…there’s certainly less opposition now.
Sam, my man, I admire your attempt to parse Mr. Pope’s writings to reach insight into why he has become a tad bit paranoid. Have no fear, sooner or later he will be in the emergency room, and will utter the fate full words that he just cannot understand when he became one of the evil people the president seems determined to destroy. That lack of reality will be enough to put him in the bobby hatch…
So stupid I can’t even formulate a response. Mr. Pope apparently believes that only Republican votes count, or something like that.
No, voting doesn’t matter, but not for any of the reasons Pope cites. It’s just a matter of statistics. Your vote doesn’t matter, and you won’t win the lottery.
What we’re seeing there is confusion. Obama is, as I suggested he would, retaining 90% of what Bush was doing, including Rendition, etc. This is Obama reacting to the reality of the task. I found this a fairly easy prediction to make.
The confusion is on the part of his supporters, who have yet to tackle the concept of reality.