[Peace-discuss] Quit the Party

[Laurie at advancenet.net]

The point of the boycott is not change the politicians (nothing short of
physical threat or the strong possibility of not being re-elected will do
that); it is to undermine the legitimacy of the election process as it
manifests itself in the U.S.  Of course, I am not stupid enough to believe
that a few people engaged in a boycott will undermine or even call the
legitimacy into question; it will take a significantly news worthy sized
vocal group, which probably will take nurturing and time to establish as
well as money just as third party campaigns and any movement takes.

It is true that in the U.S. only 10% of the citizenry vote and that has no
impact on the politicians. We are only counting those who actually vote as
voting and ignore those who may not vote because they do not like any of the
candidates or find the process flawed.  Such people are casting their vote
against the system with their feet so to speak.  They are the "Do not Know"
or "N/A" answers in surveys, which are dropped from the count when doing the
analysis and coming to conclusions.  Moreover, those in the 90% who do vote
rarely celebrate it as a cause and rallying point for mobilizing others to
do the same.  But, unfortunately, in the U.S., most of those who do not vote
do so out of apathy which does not actually question the legitimacy of the
election process.

Boycotting taxes probably will not be effective either in changing the
politicians and their politics.  It will probably attract more participants;
but the politicians and officials along with other establishment powers that
be will find other ways to raise the money they want and need for their
purposes while cutting spending on programs that do not impact them like
welfare programs, health programs, etc.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-
> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of John W.
> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 7:35 PM
> To: Laurie Solomon; Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Quit the Party
> 
> At 04:35 PM 9/29/2007, Laurie Solomon wrote:
> 
> > >Nah, you weren't a spoiler if you voted in Illinois. But as I
> understand
> > it, Gore would have gotten in  -- even w/ the voter fraud giving FL
> to
> > Bush -- if Nader votes hadn't thrown election to Bush in those
> states.
> > Chomsky warned voters NOT to do that again in 2004 b/c things had
> gotten
> > too dangerous, and many others asked Nader not to run again for the
> same
> > reason.
> >
> >Trying hard to stay out of this; but I do have to make an observation.
> To
> >tell people that they should not for practical political reasons
> follow
> >their principles when voting or supporting substantive positions
> because
> >they might be spoilers with respect to another candidate's or
> substantive
> >position's chance of winning  sounds like a very unprincipled stance
> and
> >very much political pragmatism as usual.  It tends to remind me of the
> old
> >story about the liberal southerners, who upon acquiring and holding
> seats
> >of power, authority, and position in the halls of government, sought
> to
> >pursue moderation and going slow with respect to reduction and
> elimination
> >of racial segregation and discrimination; they told the Blacks that
> they
> >should cease to protest and making demands for immediate action
> because if
> >they continued they would get the racist conservatives back in power.
> >
> >Maybe, just maybe, given the evidence of the establishment to maintain
> a
> >given policy despite changes in the power elites in government (i.e.,
> both
> >houses of the Congress from republican control to Dem control) one
> might
> >consider attempting to organize a general boycott of elections period
> >until such time as the people can actually exercise some control over
> >their officials and effectively allow for proportional representation
> of
> >all political positions rather than being forced to move the middle
> ground
> >and support the establishment's notions of being moderate and going
> slow
> >in making changes.  Not to vote is a form of voting.
> 
> 
> Just so.  The only problem with a boycott on voting is that politicians
> don't give a damn if they're elected with only 10% of the eligible
> voters
> actually voting.  A boycott on paying TAXES would be about 50,000 times
> more effective.
> 
> John W.
> 
> 
> 
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