seabee wrote:
wolfman, your paradigms illustrate what aristotle warned of for democratic society. he was talking to athens, the original democratic state, and its quite applicable to america.

the fragility of our vote and all our rights has nothing to do with what you think your neighbors will or will not do - its what your neighbors think. non-thought, non-action, a sense of empowerment, a sense of immunity to what we see on tv are the fertile breeding grounds of tyranny.

what will your neighbors do to "never" give up that vote.

let's first take a close look at them. the one's that work the hardest are not actually your neighbors, they are conscripts from other nations whose commitment to your vote starts and stops with the dollar. your military, who is the strongest and most courageous of our neighbors, report directly to that president of yours. not to congress. served with many and never met one who was protecting you or your rights. i certainly wasn't. plus i guarantee you that none -- zero -- will so much as raise a finger for you against the president. not congress. especially not the courts. and not you. the president.

so who are all those other neighbors that are going to stand up for that vote of yours?

can't be the wealthy because they don't actually think about your rights. as far as they are concerned you have only those they alone grant you. and oh, by they way, you're kind of pathetic in their eyes. you don't have a handsome pile while their big agenda on any given day is protecting their own while admiring and conniving to abscond with someone else's. they pretend to be something they are not. and for the most part their big claim in life is ripping others and then giving it away to those that don't or can't work, including their children. speaking of which those neighbors are a very scary lot -- the wealthy inbreed and produce nasty little creatures that don't, can't and won't work. they are the most self-righteous and shallow lot you'll ever encounter and as a brood they appear scripted in aristocracy. nope, i don't see them doing anything about that vote of yours.

what about the middle class? make that what middle class?

and the rest of your neighbors, the increasingly vast majority of increasingly impoverished, obese, and disenfranchised american's whose vote is so keenly sought after at this particular hour? the one's that will rise up to save that vote of yours? the one's that their lawmakers blame the food for making them fat? its the foods fault?

yeah man, its the foods fault! the chicken did it. let's go hang a burger from a tree!! mcdonald's owes me money!!! and i'll be right there to save that vote of yours just as soon as i can...get...up...from...this...couch. wait a minute...honey! where's the clicker!?! oh shoot! spilled jelly donut down my face again, i hate it when that happens!!

oh yeah, those neighbors of yours wolfman. that little vote of yours is safe and sound in the arms of your neighbors. go ahead and don't vote. go ahead and be a non-entity. the tv will always be there for you, that's possibly true, but i'm not all that sure about those rights of yours if you don't stand up and exercise them now. intelligently. thoughtfully.