Name 5 things...

[yesthattom]

Name 5 things in your life that aren’t affected by voting.

Comments

[polydad.livejournal.com]

1. Sleep
2. Eating
3. Bathing
4. Reading
5. Exercising

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

1. sleeping -- The FDA determines which sleeping pills you can take, government regulations affect the sale of mattresses, sheets, etc.

2. eating -- Food has become more politicized than ever. From pesticides vs. organic labeling laws, to funding for farm subsidies, to the power of corporate-owned farms, etc. etc

3. Bathing -- Whether or not we have clean water is determined by the work of our politicians, many of which want to hand over our water systems to corporate interests.

4. Reading -- Um, censorship laws?

5. Exercising -- Ok, this is the toughest in your list. However, money spent on weight loss is now tax deductible. Like it or not, your vote has affected this.

Would you like to go another five?

[99catsaway.livejournal.com]

Exercising - When you go out jogging with your dog, ever notice the air's a little smoggier - harder to breathe? Inner city children have asthma at a higher rate than country folk.

What about when the mosquito killing gas van comes through? Someone in charge authorized that. (We have those in humid Houston, at least).

Or the streets you jog on? Chances are, politicians put them there.

And that's just jogging.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

1. Fundamentally, you can sleep without all those things. Even assuming I was a pill-popper with a frequent-buyer card at Bed, Bath & Beyond, though, I don't really buy that my vote has much impact on this area of regulation (unless there's some bedding-related initiative tucked into our massive list of referenda for this election). Here there be bureaucracy, and it cares not for the will of the people.

2. Agreed. Although I do think continued activism is much more effective than voting in any direction on food issues.

3. Agreed, but I don't really identify _either_ candidate as strong on clean water.

4. Censorship may be an issue, but it doesn't necessarily impact any given individual's choice in reading material.

5. It's just plain offensive to assume that exercising = losing weight (or attempting to do so). If one's vote has affected exercise at all, it's most likely in areas of access to facilities (where, again, direct activism is probably more useful) or health care coverage for those weekend warrior injuries.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

Ah, but the question was to name things that weren't affected by *voting*, not by governmental interference in general. I don't call for a vote before I go to sleep, I just go to sleep. Similarly for the rest.

best,

Joel. Who does see a legitimate role for government, and wishes it wasn't simply sold to the highest bidder.

[cos]

1. fitness and diet: see above
2. sex life/love life:
Unless you're married and only having sex with your husband, there are a variety of laws all over the country that could put you at risk of selective enforcement. Contraception, both its legality and availability, vary greatly, depending on government policies. So does the availability of STD testing, especially for people who don't have much money - and whether you're poor or insured or not, if any of the people you'd consider having sex with has had sex with anyone who had sex with anyone who... you get the point. STDs proliferate and put a damper on our sex lives.

Then again, I don't know you - maybe you are married to your first partner and are lifelong monogamous. In that case, though, consider that the main cause of marital strife (and divorce) seems to be financial strain, and government policies affect things like how many jobs there are, how well they pay, what other expenses you have, the value of your savings, and so on.

4. complex weather - subject to change if we don't start protecting the natural environment more seriously, and soon. I remember the first time I went to LA, 23 years ago - we drove in over the mountains, and saw basically a sea of dark smog, with some tall buildings poking out above it. They've done a lot to alleviate that since then, fortunately.

[cos]

I don't see what this has to do with fanaticism, though. Nobody's trying to force you to be an activist. The fact is, however, that voting does affect those things, which you said it does not affect. If the answer is predictable, that implies you already knew that, in which case, why did you "take the bait"? *very puzzled*

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

"Asking people to spend 30 minutes a year voting" == "asking people to be die-hard political activists"

Wow.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

No - you're the die-hard political activist, she isn't. :-)

And while I love a die-hard political activist as much as the next person, your journal has lately seemed to me to be bordering on the obsessive.

This post, for example, feels less like an entreaty to think about the importance of the voting process than an opportunity for you to prove how much smarter than everyone else you are. And while I really don't think that's what you intended with it, boy does it ever come off that way.

But I do like the idea and will post it in my own journal -- see if I can get something useful going.

*hugs*

[99catsaway.livejournal.com]

That's unpossible!

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

WTF?

You think your sex life isn't affected by who you vote for? Politicians are constantly trying to regulate/outlaw/fuck up our sex lives. Um... Bush wants you off the pill, Cheney wants to ban various sexual positions, and Ashcroft has given political speeches saying that dancing should be banned because it looks like people simulating sex. Hello??

1. Fitness and diet I covered with Joel's post.
2. see above rant
3. Ok, you got me there. Unless any of them aren't the same race as you. Free association is one of the constitutional rights that politicians are supposed to protect, and by voting for good politicians we affect that.
4. That gorgeous sunset is brought to you by the EPA, or lack thereof
5. A highschool student last year was kicked out of school for having dreds... he was white and it was considered, "Bad for morale". No politicians stood up for him. Once we solve this "youth vote" issue, we've got to get more youth elected.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

I can honestly say that I *do* think my sex life is unaffected by who I vote for. The lot in office are repressive, to be sure, but repressive hasn't been very successful in stamping out plain-old het sex (also, I think hormonal birth control is EVIL, although I would prefer to defend the rights of others to disagree with me). The sex lives of people I empathize with may be impacted and there are some potential very bad consequences. But for me? Not so much.

[beowabbit]

Even before I saw your reply to polydad, I couldn't think of any. Maybe if I lived in Brazil or some other fairly independent-minded place I could think of five things in my life that *might* not be *seriously* affected by the US election *during my lifetime*, but I'm not convinced of that, even.

(That's why I keep making these donations I seem to keep making.)

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Great thought exercise, although I'd at least stick the word "directly" in there, otherwise pretty much any reply can be torn apart.

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Ok I'm gonna be a smartass :) (did you expect differently? ;) )

1) My eye color
2) My foot size
3) My always meeting 'taken' guys instead of cute, available, single guys (or at least guys-in-an-acceptible-situation)
4) ok.. so I can only think of 3 :) I tried!!!!

Best,
G.

[ayse.livejournal.com]

1. My ethics/morals
2. My dreams
3. Who I love
4. What I like to do
5. How much sleep I need

These are all things internal to me. While what I can do about them may be affected by voting, they in and of themselves cannot be affected by voting because they are not controllable by other people without my permission.

What's the point of this exercise? If you're trying to get people to vote, I'm guessing you're preaching to the choir, here.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

The feeling of my son's head nestled against the crook of my arm as I cuddle him to sleep.

The homemade cinnamon rolls that I had for breakfast this morning.

The wind in my hair as I bike down to work through Lexington and Arlington.

Walking through the local cemetery in the early evening with my spouse and kids.

Sitting in a public park, practicing the pennywhistle while my sweetie reads on the bench next to me.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Snood
Chocolate
My cat, Hazmat
Pride and Prejudice
Naps