You Vote even when you don't Cast a Vote at Your Polling Place

I often hear people say they don’t vote because, they say, their vote wont count or their vote wont matter. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, the bald truth is that even if you don’t cast a vote, you just voted. Let me repeat what I just said. IF YOU DON’T VOTE, YOU JUST VOTED.
How is this possible? Are you thinking that maybe someone else is voting for you, using your name? That can be a factor of course, but it is not what I am talking about.
Look at it this way, say you and 100 of your friends, co-workers and neighbors don’t vote. The next day you see who won the election and you find out that candidate A won the election by 50 votes. Now you don’t like candidate A and neither do your 100 friends, co-workers and such. By not voting, you just “voted” for candidate A because he won the election.
How could candidate B have won instead? Simple. You and your 100 friends and such go and vote for candidate B. Then you will note that your candidate will win by 50 votes.
To put it simply, if you do not vote, then you are actually voting for the winner of the election no matter who that winner is. If you do not take the time to go to the polling place and cast your vote, it is the same as actually voting for the winner of the election even if you don’t like the winner at all.
So in reality (as well as in theory) every single vote counts, yours included. You actually vote one way or the other even if you don’t take yourself to the legal polling place and pull the lever or write a check mark on a ballot.
Millions of Americans did not vote in the last presidential elections. So by not voting they actually voted for Barack Obama. Like him or not, that is who they voted for by not actually casting their vote.
Imagine if all those who did not vote actually went to their polling place and actually voted. There could have been a different winner. Yes, John McCain could have won the election instead. But even if a person likes John McCain but did not vote, they actually voted for Barack Obama. You can see how this works for any election.
Look, many people around the globe wish they only had the chance to vote for their political leaders. In fact many more around the globe actually risk their very lives to vote. Its that important and they understand that if they do not vote, it is the same as voting for the winner even if the winner is a dangerous tyrant.
So on election day, skip the gym. Don’t work late at work. Eat dinner a little bit later in the evening. Do what ever you need to do to take 30 minutes out of your day to do something far more responsible and important. Vote. It only happens at MOST once per year. So what is 30 minutes in an entire year? Its nothing.
So do what all GOOD and RESPONSIBLE Americans do. Excersise your right to vote and truly make your voice heard. Otherwise you are silent and the winner may not be someone who cares about what you care about.
Vote.

What did we learn

The off season elections took place yesterday. There were some wins, some losses. What did we learn from them? Did we learn anything at all?

First and foremost, I would hope that the GOP learned a huge and valuable lesson. Although I will not hold my breath on that one. It seems the Republican Blue Bloods are quick to spin the elections almost as fast as the Democrats.

Clearly from what most of us on the right side of the political isle can see is that there was a massive shift back to the right. There was also a massive rebuke of our sitting president. After all, Obama put a lot of political clout on the line when he went to bat so heavily for Corzine of New Jersey.

The biggest lesson the GOP and the Democrats should learn comes from Upstate New York where an upstart, never before elected, Doug Hoffman almost walked away with the prize.

Hoffman did not get the nod as the GOP nominee in the special election. The GOP instead appointed a liberal Republican to run against a liberal Democrat. Hoffman, rightfully so, did not see that the voters had a choice in that match up so he put his hat in the ring.

No big money backers, no party backing. Just a grass roots effort that almost paid off. But wait, it did pay off and it paid off big time.

Hoffman not only began to raise money and get his message out even though he was not being covered at first by the Lame Stream Media, he moved up in the polls and he moved up rather fast.

So fast was his ascension that the Republican Nominee withdrew from the race at the last minute because she was polling a distant third. But then of course as we all knew, the Republican nominee, being as liberal as she is, put her support behind the Democrat. That caused the GOP to scramble to back and support, although from afar, Hoffman.

The lesson is that Hoffman was a clear conservative cut from the Reagan cloth. People began to hear his message and they began to agree with it. All the Democrats could do was pray that the clock would run out on Hoffman and try to stunt his growth by saying there was too much "outside" influence in the campaign. Which is very laughable since Hoffman did not have big money backers like the Democrat Owens did.

What the GOP should have learned is that Reagan Conservatives still live and breath and that this is what the people really want. True conservatives. In fact, it looks as though some dozen Republicans will be facing stiff competition for nominations for their seats in the 2010 mid-term elections. True Conservatives have put the GOP on notice. Shape up or they will vote you out.

That is the lesson the GOP should have learned.