[0x01]

No. I've never voted, not once.

I do not believe I live in a democracy, even though that's what we're calling it. I believe that by voting I'm validating a broken system.

Who are all these people making calls about everything and setting rules, while knowing relatively little on the subject matter? I personally think a democracy would be every eligable person being able to contribute to the decision of (ie. voting on) these calls, rather than simply picking the 'guy' who makes them. Let the experts in their fields have a say. I don't know what such a system would look like - but only if something like that were in place would I call it a democracy. What we have right now is the illusion of a democracy. I'm not interested in voting, but I am interested in fixing this mess.

Back down to earth.. I think the barrier to entry for understanding current politics is unrealistically high: in order for me to make a call on a party I need to know quite a lot of things about each. There is no 'official source', which forces me to google, which forces me to read some third party source, whether it's a news site or some blog. Either way it's more often than not a very biased opinion that does not weigh all sides equally, and I can never form a complete picture. Too much time is required to contribute for what I would gain from it, and I have better things to do. Is anybody aware of an aggregator or a summary site of all political parties views? Can I look up a party's stance on something and cross reference what the other parties stances are on the same subject?

[anywherenotes]

Honestly, if you don't have time to form an opinion for what each party (or at least main parties) stand for, then how will you have time to vote on each individual issue? According to this website: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/statistics there have been over 10 thousands things those people have input one per year. (sounds insane to me as well)

You don't want to micromanage each little decision, and you can certainly make phone calls and show up in person to talk to some people in government to discuss things you do care about.

[0x01]

You're right of course, I definitely do not want to do that. But I know I would vote individually on the issues that I care about.

For example, if everybody had a say, SOPA wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. I would have voted it out, as would everybody else. But instead we had to sign a petition once it was nearly through. We could all be pro-active about... well, everything! But instead, we're kept on our toes being reactive to it all. (opt in not out, people!!! This ideal should exist everywhere but instead it's nowhere to be found).

If everybody did that, I believe that each of us would have more of an effect on the country than electing somebody who is never going to agree 100% with my beliefs, but is the best fit. That's insane! There will always be compromise. In England, a party can promise to change x and y if you vote for them, but once they finally come to power they might go back on their promise. Okay, so what did I vote for then? Nothing. And there's no accountability. This system is thoroughly broken and I refuse to acknowledge it by 'playing along'. And the worst thing about this is that nobody seems to notice, or care that picking the best out of a bad bunch is how we should make our country work.

Vote Waldo.