Certainly not, especially if there's no canidate to vote for. This is also America and you have the freedom of choice and that choice includes none of the above. Plus what are they going to do fine you or throw you in jail for not voting? What if you had to work a double shift that day or you were out of state? Forcing people to vote is not freedom either.
They died so that we could have freedom, and yes that includes the freedom to choose whether or not to participate in elections. Not to mention if you have to legally force someone to vote, they're probably ill-informed and/or entirely disinterested in politics, we need more intelligent voters, not necessarily more voters in a numerical sense.An interesting debate. Should voting in presidential elections be required by law? Of course this excludes felons and non-u.s. citizens. Legal voting age stays the same in this scenario.
My opinion: If you live in the United States, you will be required to vote in the United States. It would be a huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country to sit at home on election day. This is a freedom many have died for so get out and participate!
I should add that I consider myself very informed and politically involved...and yet I don't always vote myself. When I do, it's certainly not because I expect to influence the outcome of the election. In terms of the cost/benefit to me personally, it's usually just not worth the effort to vote. It wastes at least 30 minutes of my time, and the chances that my single vote swings the election are roughly nil.
And before I get the inevitable followup question, I'd like to point out that "What if everyone thought this way?" is a logical fallacy. It's based on the incorrect premise that if one person changes their behavior, that everyone else will too.
You make a good point. It's not because I agree with him, its because he would be the "best" answer to the limited people available to be president. I am still making a decision to better my country with the limited resources that are available, not voting because I 100% agree with him/her. You shouldn't not vote because you dont agree with someone, you should vote because 1 of the 2 people available to be president would do a better job in your own personal opinion. Sometimes you vote based on damage control.
An interesting debate. Should voting in presidential elections be required by law? Of course this excludes felons and non-u.s. citizens. Legal voting age stays the same in this scenario.
My opinion: If you live in the United States, you will be required to vote in the United States. It would be a huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country to sit at home on election day. This is a freedom many have died for so get out and participate!
An interesting debate. Should voting in presidential elections be required by law? Of course this excludes felons and non-u.s. citizens. Legal voting age stays the same in this scenario.
My opinion: If you live in the United States, you will be required to vote in the United States. It would be a huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country to sit at home on election day. This is a freedom many have died for so get out and participate!
I'm all about freedom of choice...and accepting the "personal" responsibility that goes along with your choices. You have the right to choose to vote and you have no one but yourself to blame if you don't vote...and don't like the way things turned out.
But I am also offended and somewhat disgusted and pissed with your attempt to tug at my emotions to shame me if I choose not to vote. Intimating that I would have a "huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country" seems to me to be a very...liberal...thing to do. I would rather you make your decision and leave me alone to make my decision.
Yes but just because you voted for someone doesnt mean you bettered the country. Politicians promise alot during campaigns and often do very little of what they said. No I dont have to agree 100% with a canidate and his choices but they better have certain things in place and better have not crossed certain lines. If they've crossed lines where I feel I don't want to vote for them and then the other canidate just sucks, I don't feel I should be forced to vote.
Infact if you vote a dishonest politician into office and they continue their same practices that screw up the country you are infact partly to blame for the mess because you voted that person in knowing his flaws. People who didnt vote atleast dont have to bear that responsibility.
An interesting debate. Should voting in presidential elections be required by law? Of course this excludes felons and non-u.s. citizens. Legal voting age stays the same in this scenario.
My opinion: If you live in the United States, you will be required to vote in the United States. It would be a huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country to sit at home on election day. This is a freedom many have died for so get out and participate!
The problem is not people refusing to participate in elections. The problem is people who are politically illiterate voting.What do I mean by politically illiterate? These are people who don't really pay attention to politics.They don't research candidates and practically just blindly vote for a candidate. Usually these people vote once every four years and maybe even in mid-term elections. They would rather watch American idol or some other dumb ass show instead of spending a few minutes to pay attention to what our elected officials are doing.This why there is an extremely low approval rating of our elected officials and a high incumbent reelection rate.The last thing we need is more politically naive people being forced by the law to participate in elections they do not want to participate. Forcing people who would not have even bothered to register to vote in the first to go vote would make this much worse.
You are aware that right is implied that you have a choice in whether or not you want to exercise it? Its the bill of rights not the bill of mandates.
I was not "tugging" at your emotions, I was stating my belief. I am not a presidential candidate, I dont tug at emotions. This is a poll, not a post to influence my beliefs. I was waiting for someone to use my lean label as an insult to their intelligence. My view has absolutely nothing to do with my political stance. This is a debate about being required to vote. For some reason i feel if my lean said "conservative" you wouldn't be so offended. If you get offended so easily on a political DEBATE forum you may want to consider spending your free time doing something else.
An interesting debate. Should voting in presidential elections be required by law? Of course this excludes felons and non-u.s. citizens. Legal voting age stays the same in this scenario.
My opinion: If you live in the United States, you will be required to vote in the United States. It would be a huge dis-respect to the millions of Americans that died for this country to sit at home on election day. This is a freedom many have died for so get out and participate!
Nah, I'd rather that uninformed and/or apathetic people NOT vote. It isn't fair for their vote to cancel out the vote of someone who really studied the issues and felt strongly about a candidate or ballot issue
Yes, i understand what your saying. By American's dying for our country they would be dying for our freedoms, so giving someone the freedom to vote would fall under that category
what an unusual view of the concept of "freedom". So "freedom" for you means "coercion to make you do what I want you to do".
...this explains so much that I have not hitherto understood about the leftist viewpoint in America....
That's BS.
You tried to lay a guilt trip as your reasoning for why people should be required to vote.
You framed this as a "think about the people who died for you" thing and want to use that to justify a law forcing people to vote. This is a typical liberal tactic.
Think about the children and pass a law to do X.
Think about what second hand smoke does and pass a law to do X.
Think about global warming and pass a law to do X.
Give me a freaking break!
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