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Can someone out there please enlighten me how grown people can get so impassioned about this current presidential race? Hasn’t history proven that the popular vote means zilch, due to the Electoral College choosing the candidate with the fewest votes in past close elections?
And wasn’t the bailing out of fat cat CEOs during the financial crisis, against the wishes of the majority of voters who contacted their “representatives” in Washington? And didn’t both candidates for president go against their constituents and vote for the bailout anyway? So much for representative government.
I will still vote for local issues, for that is where I feel that my vote might still count. I just cannot believe that two people running for president of the United States, who have taken in millions of dollars from major companies for their campaigns, care or represent my interest in any way shape or form. That is why I am boycotting the presidential vote.
If more voters just vote on local issues and refuse to vote for a president, maybe these candidates would get the idea that we have lost all trust and faith in our so-called “representatives” who are supposed to do our bidding in Washington DC.
BILL WULFF
Grand Junction
5 Responses to “What happened to true representative government?”
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Sorry, but I find our logic severely questionable. The “power brokers”/lobbyists would be thrilled if more people boycotted the presidential elctions. It would siply increase their power and influence becaus you can be sure they will still be there.
Our form of government is not perfect, but it is better than what is present in most of the rest of the world. Voting is sometimes choosing the lesser of two perceived “evils”, but it is still better than not voting and letting others decide for you.
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
oneperson is quite correct. The thing to do is to get much more involved, not less. Withdrawing, is the worst possible thing one can do as it actually ’surrenders’ the instrument of power to others.
If it is to be a ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’, it is necessary that the ‘people’ show up. True, it involves considerable effort,but what is the altervative?
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 6:21 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
The letter writer asks the question: “Can someone out there please enlighten me how grown people can get so impassioned about this current presidential race?”
The answer is really quite simple. Far too many do not only express their arguments ‘emotionally’, they actually develop their positions based upon emotion. Based upon that type of “beliving” (not thinking), questioning the conviction is not possible as there is not even the remotest of possibilities of being in error.
I would agree with oneperson that the proper response is not to ‘withdraw’, but just the opposite. Withdrawing is merely another word for ‘giving up’ and surrenderning control over the instruments of governance over to others.
And, they will take them, but never to serve ‘the people’, but ‘to serve’ themselves and their ‘friends’.
If, as Abraham Lincoln stated, that this is a “government of the people, for the people, and by the people”, then “the people” MUST show up. Either that, or they should be prepared to accept the consequences.
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 6:23 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Sorry folks: Post # 2 “Was there, was gone, and then was back again”. Kindly ignore it.
Posted October 17th, 2008 at 10:25 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Perhaps Mr. Wulff does not understand the true nature of “representative government.” That involves placing people in office to ‘govern’, we do not elect individuals and then dictate to them in how they are to vote on a particular issue. If that is all that we wanted, we could just as well send a ‘trained ape.” (It would be much cheaper and we would achieve the same results.
That is why we should have absolutely no respect for those who do nothing more than determine “which way the wind is blowing”; i.e. determne their postion based upon popular opinion. Such individuals are actually ’spineless’ and, although they hold leadership positions, are not at all leaders. Those individuals are looking out for their own interests, and are serving themselves, not their constituents.
As a member of the electorate, our obligations are ‘up front’, in selecting what and whom we want in public office. So, we need to pay close attention to what those individuals really believe, and not what they tell us they believe, or someone telling us what they think we want to hear.
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