That’s not true. You say all those things like they are calamities visited on people, but in truth, every single one has many supporters. There are those who stand up for the wars, illegal or not, and don’t mind debt if those wars are what create it. You can hear posters here stand up for corporate influence and massive inequality as giving the successful their due. You would think executing people with unfair trials would be abhorrent, but judges become popular doing just that. And yes, there are people who want social insecurity, to the point where a really weak health care plan was proclaimed the end of the country.
And yeah, some of these things do depend on who’s in power. I gave graphs related to both debt and unemployment in this same thread; if you want me to believe the electorate has no say over them, you need to provide some evidence. Because right now they look much more like examples of the power voting does have, just…tragically wielded in the wrong direction.
So look, I agree with you that the two party system is a disaster, in no small part because it is biased toward allowing such problems; but it still takes input from the public, and those problems only endure because there are people who vote for them to endure.
I agree with you that we shouldn’t let ourselves be divided, and that we have our power from coming together. But you can’t stand in solidarity with someone until they ask for at least some of the same things as you, and right now, even your minimal demand - a cap on corporate influence - is surprisingly not that popular. The first step must then be to make it popular.
When that happens, I don’t think a vote strike would even be necessary to get it in place, but if it were I would be all for it. Until that point, though, the politicians for these things would like nothing more than to let their supporters decide things while everyone else stands back. As others have pointed out, they’ve already been fighting for that.
Don’t give it to them. Voting is a small and inadequate part of making positive change, but it is still a part and covers more ground than you are giving credit. The promise you see in leaving that power to people who do support these problems, just the way the would-be-disenfranchisers are fighting for, just does not seem convincing to me while they still have that support.
Good luck with the rest, though, pixleshifter. I think we agree on at least two important things: this isn’t where we should go, and it will take much work outside the electoral system to fix the course.
