{"id":893,"date":"2014-11-03T12:56:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cuttothechase.wpengine.com\/?p=893"},"modified":"2014-11-03T12:57:01","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:57:01","slug":"fail-to-vote-and-you-fail-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893","title":{"rendered":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cuttothechase.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"894\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?attachment_id=894\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"215,213\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"vote-counts\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-894\" src=\"https:\/\/cuttothechase.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\" alt=\"vote-counts\" width=\"215\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg 215w, https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t heard them all, but I\u2019ve heard most of them\u2014excuses for not voting:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cWhat difference does it make, they\u2019re all crooks?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cI\u2019m tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cI\u2019m gonna show \u2018em. I\u2019m not gonna vote for either candidate.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cMy guy lost in the primary and I don\u2019t like the guy who won the nomination so I\u2019m not gonna vote.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And my favorite,<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cI\u2019m not the voting kind. Politics is too controversial and I don\u2019t want to get involved.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Someone actually told me that a few years ago when I was campaigning for a very good candidate. I was about to respond in an attempt to persuade him to reconsider when I thought,<em> \u201cHow can I possibly argue with the logic of worrying that your political preference would stir controversy when no one knows how you voted?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And with that type of logic, if he did go to the polls, he would undoubtedly have too little information to vote intelligently. So I just said \u2018thank you\u2019 and moved on.<\/p>\n<p>Each excuse for not voting may address a different aspect of our current political atmosphere, yet they all share the same illogical thought process that ignores the basic fact that not voting is not only a non-solution to existing problems it most likely will create new ones.<\/p>\n<p>Not voting is also a slap in the face to all the veterans who have served our country. Some fought, some died, and all made tremendous sacrifices to guarantee, among other things, our freedom to vote.<\/p>\n<p>That freedom has often been used to serve special interests, as opposed to the best interests of our nation. Yet rather than being a deterrent to participate in the process, abuses resulting from an electorate who put corrupt, self-serving or incompetent people in office point directly to voters who were too lazy or too apathetic to go to the polls.<\/p>\n<p>The genesis of ill-advised or counter-productive legislation is often a group of zealots who rally around a cause and politicians who support that cause. And with the majority of moderate voters uninvolved and disinterested, legislation that most people don\u2019t want is often passed into law\u2014primarily because a sufficient number of voters didn\u2019t bother to vote for candidates who were opposed the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Officials who vote for counter-productive legislation are often voted out of office. But not always. If nothing else, that should serve as sufficient incentive to become an informed voter and most importantly to exercise your right to vote.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>I haven\u2019t heard them all, but I\u2019ve heard most of them\u2014excuses for not voting: \u201cWhat difference does it make, they\u2019re all crooks?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m tired of <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\" title=\"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[164,165,163],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-commentary","tag-elections","tag-veterans","tag-vote"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I haven\u2019t heard them all, but I\u2019ve heard most of them\u2014excuses for not voting: \u201cWhat difference does it make, they\u2019re all crooks?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m tired of [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cut to The Chase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"215\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"213\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Emanuel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Emanuel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dave Emanuel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51eae4c473d1809e239128dc725e6f7b\"},\"headline\":\"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\"},\"wordCount\":438,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"elections\",\"veterans\",\"vote\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Political Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\",\"name\":\"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg\",\"width\":215,\"height\":213},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cut to The Chase\",\"description\":\"Commentary &amp; Opinion\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cut to The Chase\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/cropped-CutToTheChase250x104.jpg?fit=250%2C104&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/cropped-CutToTheChase250x104.jpg?fit=250%2C104&ssl=1\",\"width\":250,\"height\":104,\"caption\":\"Cut to The Chase\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51eae4c473d1809e239128dc725e6f7b\",\"name\":\"Dave Emanuel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c52ff86e0e18cdf61770a55495964654dcad89d5425b9c8ae6a373cf6ed9ac?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c52ff86e0e18cdf61770a55495964654dcad89d5425b9c8ae6a373cf6ed9ac?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Emanuel\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase","og_description":"I haven\u2019t heard them all, but I\u2019ve heard most of them\u2014excuses for not voting: \u201cWhat difference does it make, they\u2019re all crooks?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m tired of [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893","og_site_name":"Cut to The Chase","article_published_time":"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":215,"height":213,"url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Emanuel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Emanuel","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893"},"author":{"name":"Dave Emanuel","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51eae4c473d1809e239128dc725e6f7b"},"headline":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself","datePublished":"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893"},"wordCount":438,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","keywords":["elections","veterans","vote"],"articleSection":["Political Commentary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893","url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893","name":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself - Cut to The Chase","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-03T17:56:57+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-03T17:57:01+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","width":215,"height":213},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?p=893#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fail to Vote and You Fail Yourself"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/","name":"Cut to The Chase","description":"Commentary &amp; Opinion","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#organization","name":"Cut to The Chase","url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/cropped-CutToTheChase250x104.jpg?fit=250%2C104&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/cropped-CutToTheChase250x104.jpg?fit=250%2C104&ssl=1","width":250,"height":104,"caption":"Cut to The Chase"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51eae4c473d1809e239128dc725e6f7b","name":"Dave Emanuel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c52ff86e0e18cdf61770a55495964654dcad89d5425b9c8ae6a373cf6ed9ac?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/31c52ff86e0e18cdf61770a55495964654dcad89d5425b9c8ae6a373cf6ed9ac?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Emanuel"},"url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/vote-counts.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfcaxG-ep","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cuttothe-chase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}