>so, what's at stake if people spend 30 minutes next election day voting for
>almost anyone but shrubya? Kelley
>
>----------
>
>Nothing. I am voting for Bush. And I don't intend to blow thirty
>minutes doing it.
<big inhale><big exhale> aahhhhhhhhhhhh. i love the smell of revolutionary defeatism in the morning!
i guess i'm assuming waiting in line, chit chatting with neighbors, driving to the polls which, around here, can take an assload of time. i.e., 30 minutes. ;)
other than that, this doesn't address carrol's argument: if voting for dean doesn't make a difference, then voting for shrub or any other candidate doesn't make a difference, either.
yoshie's argument, otoh, is different. ultimately, what is at stake for a dean win is that the antiwar movement--and all hopes for revolutionary social change--will flounder. it's not that voting is pointless, does nothing to change things. Rather, voting for Dean and a Dean win is the _real_ problem.
i remember the summer before i headed to grad school. i was working for a corporate catering outfit. we were packing it up for a big cornell function--for new students or some such. my boss came walking out of her office to inform me that the plant where the wasband worked in the caefeteria was going to be shut down, relocating to mexico. they'd been going through downsizings for over a decade. Of course, my thought was, 'Ohshitshitshitshit, there goes the main income. then my boss told me that, according tothe grapevine, the wasband's job wasn't on the line: transfer. phew. then i thought, well, i guess the downsizing will make for a decent dissertation. i shared all this with co-workers and concluded with a wry smile, "see, i didn't go into philosophy because the job outlook was too iffy. i decided on sociology since we'll always have jobs. as long as life is shit for people, sociologists will always have a raison d'etre. we need tragedy to write stuff that no one reads."
Matrix Revolutions!
kelley