Week 1 over at BlogSpectrum

Cross posting this from BlogSpectrum (also back-dated to match with the date and time on BlogSpectrum)

The Biggest Threat to America Today – the American People

I don't mean everyone in America. I'm talking about the eligible citizens who don't vote. The apathetic citizens who simply don't care enough to have a say in what happens with our country. The past few presidential elections have hovered around 50% voter turnout, this year's election was at about 56% turnout. What's wrong with this picture?

The excuses for not voting are many and varied, including (but certainly not limited to):
• "I don't have time." Vote absentee, it's easy and you can do it whenever you want, as long as your ballot gets in before Election Day.
• "My vote doesn't count." Every vote counts towards the electorate, and if everyone who said that had voted, the results may have been different.
• "I can't get off work." The law allows up to 3 hours off to go vote. If you are out of town, vote absentee.
• "I don't want to vote for this office/ on this proposition/ etc." You don't have to, vote for what you want to vote for, leave the others blank if you don't want to vote on it.
• "If I vote, they will get my name and call me for Jury Duty." Guess what, most states use lists of driver's licenses, not voter rolls. I have a family friend who is a legal resident, but a Canadian citizen. She's been called for Jury Duty several times.

Then after not voting, they bitch about what is wrong with this country. If you don't vote, you can't bitch, simple as that.

Voting is not just the right and privilege that most people think of it as; it is also a DUTY.

Why I'm here...

I'm Politikat, here because The Casual Observer nagged me into getting a political blog. Well, ok, it didn't require much nagging... He just tempted me with his idea for a group blog experiment. I couldn't resist. So here I am...

Those who already know me will have an idea of my political viewpoints... I don't think I'll expound on them in my intro, I think I'll let my responses to The Casual Observer's questions at the group blog experiment speak for themselves. Although I will say that I have taken the "test" that the Libertarians had at my local Fair one year... I came out very firmly in the "liberal" section. I tend to think of myself as a moderate, another friend says we are "screaming moderates"; I think I like "dynamic moderate" better.

First post.

I got this blog because a friend nagged me into it... he asked why I didn't have a political blog. I will try and keep it updated, and I will be participating in his experiment in group blogging... I will probably be much more active there then on this blog, although I will *try* and keep it updated. I won't be emoting all over the place here (I have a livejournal for that), this is strictly for my political rantings (which will probably appear on my livejournal also).

Yes, this is the same as my description... I had to have *something* for the blog to show up!