The presidential candidates on the issues at a glance

[rva_jeremy]

Not voting does not send a message that you protest against a corrupt system; it sends the message (which is compiled as data) that you don't participate for whatever reason and that you aren't a voice for change, rather you are a voice for possible apathy. The more people who vote here, suggests that more people care what the government is doing, so the powers-that-be may adjust how much control they estimate they can get away with.

I can't speak to what voting data is actually used for, but even if your theory is correct, Diana, it still means that a single vote has at best a very oblique and indirect effect on the actual actions and policies of the government.  I tend to wonder whether it's even worth the time, when I could be spending that time and energy on things that have a greater chance to yield impact.

For what it's worth, I think one of the biggest problems with elections is that they convince people that they've actually done something worthwhile politically, and that once a vote is cast their job is completed.  Ultimately, getting out there and building the kind of world you want to see is what matters.  It's what the politicians and their backers are doing.  Unfortunately, too many people think that if they simply cast a vote, they've done their duty.  The reality is that politics is not something that happens on one day in November every four years -- it's happening all the time in how you relate to others.

The Industrial Workers of the World, a radical union that was largely responsible for our 5 day work week and 8 hour work day, have a saying: "forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old".  This means not competing in the game to control the levers of power at the top inside of the current (dare I say rigged) system, but instead building new levers and new structures of power in a bottom-up manner.  I do think too many people are so invested in a game that they have astronomically little influence in that they neglect the much greater influence they have at the local or even neighborhood level, where politics has the ability to not simply be a horse race of policy wonks and B-list celebrities but can be transformational in how people think about themselves and relate to each other.