Thoreau72
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Re: The US is an oligarchy, study concludes
I implied nothing at all. You might have thought I was implying something, but I wasn't.
I was merely reporting my emotional state the next morning. Smiling when you wake up. It's a good thing. The frigging election cycle has finally reached orgasm, and we can return to normal television programming. It's a good thing.
But you are correct in your criticism. Hopelessly romantic, but correct.
It is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all, for sure. I agree.
But the other side of the coin is that on the national level, and excepting the local level, your actual final choice comes down to just another human. It is rare that a perfect leader comes up through the political process, but it does happen.
Yes, technically there is a difference. But when we express to others that we have a clear conscience, the implication is that if they did something different than we did, they shouldn't have a clear conscience and we are superior in that regard. I am no different. When I do what I believe to be the right thing, and go out of my way to announce that I did the right thing, I am stating loud and clear that my motives and intentions are commendable; i.e. superior to those who don't share them. There is no shame in that. It is the American way so to speak.
(It isn't saying that I am superior, but just that my choice was superior to the opposing choice.)
Seriously, my personal ideology is that if something does not produce the intended results--in fact if we KNOW or don't CARE whether it produces intended results--then there is no nobility or merit in doing it at all. And certainly it is foolish to do it just to have a 'clear conscience'. If anything it should produce a state of guilt within us, not smugness. And certainly, our ethics should not produce a clear conscience when we do something that we KNOW or don't CARE whether it produces intended results.
When it comes to our vote, we should all be doing our damndest to discern who the superior candidate will be and get him/her on the ballot. And when it comes time to vote for the best candidate on the ballot, our vote should go to the one who will accomplish the most good, or at least do the least harm and who has a chance to win. So yeah, that sometimes means voting for the Republican or Democrat even though they are far less than what we had hoped for.
To 'throw away' our vote in protest or to make a statement might indeed give us a feeling of accomplishment but we should not have a clear conscience when we do it because we will have failed to make whatever small difference we could. And to vote for the lesser candidate because of reasons other than what is best for all is to create the kinds of oligarchy that are most destructive to this country.
There is no shame in trying and failing. The shame comes in not trying at all.
I implied nothing at all. You might have thought I was implying something, but I wasn't.
I was merely reporting my emotional state the next morning. Smiling when you wake up. It's a good thing. The frigging election cycle has finally reached orgasm, and we can return to normal television programming. It's a good thing.
But you are correct in your criticism. Hopelessly romantic, but correct.
It is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all, for sure. I agree.
But the other side of the coin is that on the national level, and excepting the local level, your actual final choice comes down to just another human. It is rare that a perfect leader comes up through the political process, but it does happen.
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