e-commentary

George Carlin, the comedian and political philosopher, refuses to vote.  Samuel Beckett, the dramatist, novelist and playwright, rarely if ever voted.  Anthony Downs, the political theorist and economist, suggested that it may not be rational for an individual to vote. 

Is voting a joke, absurd or irrational?  Some recent elections have been rigged.  One of the vote counters–Diebold, the manufacturer of the voting machines–is run by a Bush supporter.  Support efforts to unrig elections.  And vote so that the only way to steal an election from the populace is to steal it.  Stealing all elections is much harder to accomplish than stealing a few.

Many VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) posts observe that “Freedom Is Not Free.”  Thomas Jefferson, the guy on the two dollar bill, observed that the “price of freedom is constant vigilance.”  Voting is vigilance.  Pay the price to be free.  Vote. 

Election Day should be a holiday.  Vote.  And vote to celebrate Veterans Day every even-numbered year on Election Day to celebrate the veterans who made and make it possible to vote.  As the Canadian philosopher Wayne Gretzky once observed:  “You miss 100 % of the shots you don’t take.”

Bumper stickers of the week:

My vote cancels your vote

Don’t blame me, I voted for __________

This entry was posted on November 6, 2006 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.