I blame God- Page 2

[bythesword84]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 4:46pm

You can say stupid kids all you want but everyone I know (myself included) voted in this election and we're all in that age group. I don't think you can blame the younger voters for not voting anymore than you can blame people of any other age for not voting. And, just because someone is in that age group, does not mean he or she would have (or did) vote for Kerry.

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 4:59pm

Blame Canada

[orion59]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 5:04pm

I blame the younger voters, those between the ages of 18-30, who chose not to vote. Those 90-85% (depending on the source of the statistics) who talked for the past year about hating Bush, moving to Canada, etc, etc, then decided that an hour to two hours wait in line to vote was just too much.

Whatever the percentage of voters in this age range who actually turned out and cast a vote, it was extremely low. Most voters in this age range that were polled were Kerry supporters. It's frightening that so many people care so little about having some say and exercising some control over who is elected to run their government. 10-15% of registered voters age 18-30 actually turned out to vote.
For those who chose not to vote because it was more important to be home in time to catch the Tuesday night Sex And The City double episodes, you can't complain after the fact. You had your chance to make a difference.

Some blame also goes to third party candidates and those who wasted a vote on an impossible cause. Well meaning as they may have been, it was a foolish move.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 5:21pm

3rd party candidates? they didn't even draw a million votes between them i don't think. that's not an excuse that flies this year. nader drew 394,794 nationwide. that's .3%. not three percent but three tenths of one percent. just a little more than bush's margin of victory in florida alone. it's just about 10% of bush's margin of victory in the popular vote. i'm not buying the 3rd party candidate story this time.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 5:29pm

Blame, blame, blame. Who cares about the blame? You know what? I blame everyone. Yes, even you, people who voted for John Kerry. I blame myself, too. If we couldn't get such a mediocrity of a President and politician out of office, we all stink.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 5:34pm

not me. i showered!

[bythesword84]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 7:04pm

Well you can't blame anyone for who won and who lost. Bush won, Kerry lost. That's how it goes. In four years it'll all happen again and people will be arguing the same exact things. If people don't like the country they don't have to stay in it. Regardless of what you think or who you want to win, you have to accept who does win. All the yelling and screaming and blaming isn't going to change what has been voted on by this country. This country is more than just one group of people who think a certain way. You can blame my age group for it all you want but even if they had voted it doesn't mean they would have voted for your side and then you'd just have to start finding someone else to blame.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 7:25pm

Ok, so I hear only 1 in 10 18-25 years olds voted, right? Is anyone good at math? How many of them would have had to vote and vote for Kerry for him to have won?

[shesings]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 7:26pm

Ok, atfirst this was amusing, but now .... look, placing blame isn't going to change a damn thing. So lets move on and suck it up.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 11/3/04 at 7:31pm

It's not gods fault. Its the fault of whoever said there was a god. This was a religious election.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 12:22am

I blame God.

Well, not so much God, as "God." This monolithic figurehead that informs evangelicals that somehow GW Bush is the moral center of the nation. This unilateral being who has foes around the world: a being who traces evil to evildoers, instead of to ideas. A being who feels gratitude when people elect a Messianic hero to overcome the evils of a liberalism that allows for multitudes of positions on one issue.

I blame the church.

A church that preaches at pulpits for people to vote a certain way -- as if God came down from Heaven to let them know what the Truth is. And a church that continues to preach hatred of homosexuals (despite the lovely anecdotes of "love the sinner, hate the sin"), disregard for non-American lives, a distaste for peace-lovers (cause we want peace until someone pisses us off), and a general disdain for the mere notion of liberty (unless it is a notion that ties itself to defense).

And, last, I blame me

The parts of me that did not standing up loud enough -- the part that did not build pulpits beside the ones that preach such atrocities. I should have known the power of the pulpit.

Shame on them. Shame on me.

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 1:09am

Blaming anyone for the turn out makes you come off as an ass, it's just unavoidable. If you MUST find blame, blame Kerry or even the Democrats. Blame Kerry for not taking a firm stand on issues. Blame the Democrats for picking a terrible canidate. Look, most of Kerry's votes were anti-Bush votes. Had they chose a canidate who people actually beleived in, I can guaratee you there would be a different headline on my paper.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 3:05am

This twentysomething certainly voted.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 3:12am

>> If if free cans of Kerry Beer had been distributed at poll sites in college towns, the outcome might have been different.

that is a fooking brilliant idea. how the results would have been different... but if we're gonna do the blame thing, i've been blaiming a sucky campagin. i mean, there was virtually nothing and no one standing in the way of the big republican machine. the only effective marketing was done by grassroots organizations, not the actualy kerry people. another problem were the eleven states that had gay marriage on their ticket. that made folks come out in droves, and incidently vote for bush (while they came there more or less just to vote against their local laws). you can always blaim young people, i know a lot of my friends didn't vote because they didn't like either canidate. but i drove, i voted, and i rejoiced in the fact that i have to right to speak my mind. i went to the county-by-county map to see how many in my area voted for bush... and it was 78%. and that, my dearies, is why i'm getting the hell out of here. people's republic of america, here i come

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:50am

"If people don't like the country they don't have to stay in it."

Sorry, but it's just not that easy. If it was, I would have done it a couple of years ago. There is a lot involved if you want to move to a different country and most of them are extremely difficult to get into. For example, Spain currently does not grant work visas for anyone not of Spanish descent. Without a visa, you can't live there. Getting work visas in Canada and Western Europe is not easy and takes anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 8:00am

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)

[Plum]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 6:59pm

If people don't like the country they don't have to stay in it.

Bythesword, I generally respect you as a poster, so don't take this personally, but I despise that argument. It's contrary to everything this country is about. We are a nation founded on plurality, on the notion that mankind will never learn to agree, but has to learn to get along anyway. You can do that by smashing everyone down with a tyrant, a Hobbesian Leviathan, or you can try to do that by letting people govern themselves through institutions carefully constructed to balance power.

Hating the way this country is run does not mean hating the country itself- they're two very different things. And it's that separation that makes our country great. When a President leaves office, the country does not fall, because unlike in a kingdom or dictatorship, the nation is not the same as the ruler. When a President stinks, he does not corrupt the system itself, or at least not completely. I hate the current administration, but that doesn't mean giving up on America. And I'm not leaving.

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:02pm

"i know a lot of my friends didn't vote because they didn't like either canidate"

www.lp.com

[feinstein9]

Posted: 11/4/04 at 7:07pm

that link didn't work for some reason, but i'm guessing it's for the libertarian party? unfortunatly, what i meant about my friends not liking the canidates extended to them not liking any politican in general. but that's their stupid choice, if they want the world to suck.