"We have to get organized, develop our own agenda, and hold our elected officials at all levels of government accountable to us."

And how does one go about holding our elected officials accountable to us? when they no longer represent interests and values important and of highest priority? How does one hold them accountable, if one keeps voting over and over for the same representatives that keep not representing you? what are the choices? Do you think voting for the same people, to not do the same things over and over again, is holding them accountable? Not voting for them again IS holding them accountable. That is the accountability. It sucks, but it's true.

"Our families can't afford to stay home on election day" because they're unemployed and about to be foreclosed upon by the criminals who sucked up all of "our families" taxpayer funded bailout dollars. Hell, "our families" will be too busy trying to find a shelter with an empty bed and a food pantry with some moldy government cheese for sustenance. Yet here you are crying that you want us to vote for the same bastards that put us in these dire straights?

Sheesh....vote for more of the same? Are you insane?

Some elections seem to offer more hope than dread, others more dread than hope. That's clearly reflected in these messages. At times I have certainly felt like all of the options on the ballot are so far removed from what I would like to see that the act of voting seems like a waste at best, or perhaps a betrayal.

But to vote or to not vote is not really an either/or proposition — it's not a matter of either supporting the clunky, corrupt political machine or defeating it by boycotting the election. The change that we create doesn't come from not voting, it comes from playing a contributing role.

Voting won't make gravity suck less, it won't smooth out the irregularities in the earth's magnetic field. By itself, it won't clean up Washington DC any more than betting on a football game will. But spending the time to tease some sense out of what's in the voters pamphlets and engaging with candidates and our elected officials to let them know what we want and what our votes mean to us goes a lot further than simply not being counted.

By staying home you are doing just what the mongrels (republicans) want you to do.

So when you end up in the gutter just find a puddle to look in and you'll see another idiot.

We have only one party, the Business Party. The Left and Right wings take turns plundering our once great nation. We the people will never find salvation without killing corporate 'personhood' - fat chance. Our other choice is to divest and depart this Fascist Police State. Our Families Can’t Afford to Stay Home, period.

But not voting is a huge mistake. Things could get much worse, and if enough of us stay home, they almost certainly will.

More moronic pontification, i.e., listen to the pigs squeal.

Dear Sarah Greider:

I doubt you feel anything for the destitute families, except as Obedient Servant says above "vapid" liberal sentimentality. If you want true THINKING progressives, of which there were tens of millions in 2008, all massed as a people's movement of power to bring FUNDAMENTAL change in the direction of, wealth distribution and economic opportunity in this country; and complete cessation of gratuitous wars and brutality against defenceless third world peoples, to support Obama and his Dems then YOU have to answer this question that seems to me central. I will yell, and I am sorry, but it seems to strike the heads of Obamabots and rebounds.

WHY DID OBAMA and The DEMs NOT USE THE FILIBUSTER PROOF MAJORITY IN THE SENATE and 60-70% of the PUBLIC BEHIND THEM WHEN THEY HAD THAT ONCE IN 100 years MANDATE - - FEB 1 2009 to NOV 30, 2009 - - to BRING ROOSEVELTIAN CHANGE to AMERICA and the WORLD?

Period. That's it.

If you can't answer this question at this eleventh hour for your heroes, then I feel it would be better to have an honest wing nut Tea Party fascist takeover of political power. Why? Because we know what to expect from them. They are in our face and say it as they see it. I can't bear to see the duplicitous, surreptitious fascists Obama and the Dems make another pretense of progressive governance but putting into effect an even more cunning and vicious fascist agenda as they did in 2009-2010.

Perhaps the country needs to go through maximum economic turmoil at home and military catastrophe in the ME and Central Asia that wing nuts will surely deliver in the next 2-4 years before the confused plebians will give up their "hopes" and liberals like you Greider will stop spinning vomitous liberal kumbaya sentimentality to vote for Obumber and the Dims once again. Pox on their houses.

A handful of “conservative” Democrats held the congress hostage for two years. A handful of progressives can certainly hold it for two more; long enough to cultivate some candidates to help them. “Conservatives”, Democrats and Republicans, will destroy this country. They don’t understand that when everyone is poor, most of them will be too because no one will be able to buy things from the companies they’re invested in. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to endure breadlines, religious mania and martial law to “retain order” to prove a point.

Vote next Tuesday. If you don’t want to support so-called conservative Democrats I couldn’t agree more. There are always alternatives or write-ins.

If you want to boycott, boycott Dixie products and FOX media, yes that includes the movies you really wanted to see. Boycott Wall Street. Take your money out of the casino. Then boycott the banks they are laughing all the way too; meaning consider not taking that loan, don't get that next credit card, use your own bank's ATM. You can cause pain to the people who are squeezing the country dry.

Start squeezing them back.

And if you want to rally there’s a big one in a day or two: http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/

Democracy does not mean going out and voting for someone--anyone--just for the sake of voting. When nobody on the ballot represents your views you should stay home. If we could get all the disenchanted liberals to stay home we'd make a real statement to the world--that the U.S. is no longer a meaningful democracy. Our choice is limited to which particular corporate stooge from which pro-war, corporatist party we think we can stomach. I can no longer stomach any of them. I'm not voting. These pleas to vote are becoming nauseating. I say stay home and make a real statement. Don't go out and vote for some imbecile who doesn't even stand for your views. Refurbishing this house just won't work. We need to let it fall apart and then rebuild it. Will Palin and her ilk finish the demolition that started with Bush? Yes, they will. I'm well into my 50s and have a child and although I'd love to leave her a better world than this, I can see that's not happening, so better that it fall apart quickly so I'll still be around to figure out how to best prepare her for her future, rather than have the whole thing gradually fall down under the Dems.

To all the pseudo-liberal Dem voters I say, My vote is mine, not yours! If my vote means anything it has to be a free one decided by me, not you. If you can stomach voting for a Dem that's your choice. My choice is not to waste my time doing that and for you to tell me to do otherwise is arrogant, disdainful and presumptuous! You are not part of the solution. You are part of the problem. You are the kind of people the Dems are relying on to continue their neo-Republican policies and get away with it. If you want real change then stop voting for the Dems. They are utterly useless. We need to dump all of the existing parties and start anew.

I want to say a hearty Right Fuckin On! to BillyD1953 and CommonSenseParty.

Better to place this action called "voting" in an institutional context. The forces placed on the elected person by the state machinery and pressures from big business dictate the outcome. Your vote is meaningless. You can argue all you want that "We need to keep up the pressure to demand Politician______ needs to listen to ordinary citizens, not to business" and you will rot on the vine as your words disappear into the indifferent air.

Most people are confused or have not thought to much about the difference between The State and Government.

There is a difference between the state and government. The state is the permanent collection of institutions that have entrenched power structures and interests. The government is made up of various politicians. It is the institutions that have power in the state due to their permanence, not the representatives who come and go. We cannot expect different politicians to act in different ways to the same pressures. However, this is all ignored by the voting political consumer who wishes Politician______ was more a socialist, green, populist etc. and could ignore the demands of the dominant class in society while in charge of one part of its protector and creature, the state.

In today's US, especially at the national level, elections are worse than worthless -- they simply perpetuate illusions & waste time. They are degrading & repulsive exercises in Madison Avenue PR techniques, where "the truth" is off limits from the get-go. Effort should be directed not at participating in this system, but at bringing it down, exposing its corrupt essence, & building genuinely constructive alternatives.

Voting lends legitamacy to the charade. Call the people in control what you will, republicans, conservatives, neo-cons, MIC, mainstream media, even democrats. The one common demoniator is money. All of our enemies have too much fucking money and it has replaced everything else meaningful in their lives. 99% of us are not a part of the take-over. Strangely, about 50% of us at a given time, depending on what logo is in power, feel that they are. Wake the hell up folks. Whether you vote or not is up to you and still completely meaningless in your lives. You have the votes to make a difference, yet you are all too lazy to pass up the latest corporate deal. YOU are being controlled by money. Money in the wrong hands and way too much of it in the same hands. YOU gave them that money and continue to do so today. You wouldn't pay a dollar more for an item from a ma and pa business even if it meant the dismanlting of corporate facism. You wouldn't use a sole proprietorship instead of a corporate monetary mega siphon to have your yard cut or house sprayed for bugs because it would be too inconvenient or expensive. You won't tolerate your kids being last to obtain that new highly advertised mind numbing gadget, or having the smallest TV set on the block, because that is how you find value in your lives. That's not ok, because dead people all over the world have gone through quite an inconvenince for you. So be proud of your corporate logos, on your shirts and cars and books and breakfast, for the entire world is paying a dear price so you can feel that you've accomplished something and are a part of something. Your soul is the economy and your sins are your spending habits. Like dems and republicans, there is no difference between voting or not voting. Staying home means the same as a vote, nothing. For those of you who must continue financing the corporate takeover because you think you are a part of it, might I suggest that a republican vote will expedite your subconscious desire to self destruct. A Democratic vote will have the exact same effect and so will staying home and not voting. Or, with the blink of an eye, you could decide, to vote with your money everyday. WTF

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”

And just who do I vote for? The one on the Right, who Factcheck tells me is lying or the one on the Left, who Factcheck says is lying?

cross-posted from the Kucinich-Nihilism thread...apologies if that's bad manners...

all of this talk of voting assumes so much...just a couple:

that the votes are accurately tallied...

that a given candidate, once elected, actually attempts to pursue whatever they said during the campaign regarding battling the establishment on behalf of the common folk, despite all historical evidence indicating otherwise...

most importantly, that a given candidate, once elected, is beyond influence that might change campaign positions...

in the real world, every winning candidate is 'vetted' for corporate compliance...if not during their initial foray into the world of politics, it will be done after they have settled into office...

have you any idea of the various forms of enticement or pressure one can apply to another to influence behavior?

no candidate can counter current trends and survive...

the system is designed to carry on...not change...

if you disagree, I offer, or threaten...whatever...

Although I plan to vote (and vote the Democrat ticket -- even though it's almost useless in Cobb County, GA) there is something inside me that says let the GOP have both houses of Congress -- they won't be able to create jobs out of thin air either. This recession is not going to recede until housing and credit problems are worked out -- maybe in another 3 or 4 years. Only when economic fears are overcome and demand starts creeping up will the unemployment figures start looking better.

As for Boehner and McConnell and their "Uncertainty is keeping businesses from hiring" BS, they are just reading the GOP line for the day. As Zachary Karabell writes in the October 18 TIME magazine, "If Washington today were to make crystal-clear all economic policy for the next five years businesses would not suddenly start hiring." Production doesn't drive demand, demand drives production. Neither the Democrats or Republicans can change that.