Friday, May 04, 2012

The 1% may have the money but the 99% have the votes!

I thought of the above phrase last night after a "debate" between a Tea Party supporter and an Occupy Movement participant.  See "Respectful discussion covers Occupy, Tea Party movements", Mike Creger, Duluth News Tribune, 2012-05-04.

After the main discussion, audience members were allowed two minutes each to speak.  I reminded people that all recent presidents and many other elected official received the votes of only a minority of eligible voters.

After I spoke, I pondered the common complaint that elections are bought.  Come on!  Are we a bunch of zombies who follow some evil master?  If we consider ourselves free agents, then we should go to the polls and vote for the candidates we prefer, write in somebody, or leave it blank.  If more of us voted, the expensive campaigns may become meaningless.  In fact, there have been cases where the candidate who spent the least won the election.