“THE REALITY OF THE VOTE”
by OPOVV, ©2016
(May 7, 2016) — Dear Mr. Temper Tantrum Graham:
Heard you the other day saying that you weren’t going to vote in the next presidential election, which reminded me of a paper that Benjamin Franklin wrote in our country’s infancy.
Benjamin was explaining to the American people the actual process of voting: the nuts-and-bolts of the physical reality of the vote.
First of all, a vote is, in its most basic form, the counting of the hands raised in the air either for or against a proposal or just a simple question: “Who wants to try the Donner Trail or wait ’til spring?” to “A show of hands for closing the border to Muslims and deporting the ones that have already sneaked in as the vanguard of the Army of Islam.”
Even back then people had to be registered in order to be allowed the privilege of being able to raise their hands and be counted, or else make an “X” to be placed in the appropriate box to be counted later to determine the “will of the people.”
“The will of the people,” it turns out, is not only those who are legally registered, but also those who are registered but failed to cast a ballot to those who could be registered but didn’t for any number of excuses, from plain laziness to not giving a hoot; to those who thought they were above all the hoopla thinking, perhaps, that by not registering – or just not voting – that they could be excused – in their “made-up” world — from the outcome.
Benjamin was quite explicit on his making no differential between a person who was registered (and actually casting a ballot) to those who were registered and not casting a ballot to those who were able to be legally registered but were not.
In other words, there are three possible physical conditions by which a person can have his vote counted:
Condition#1: A registered voter who votes.
Condition #2: A registered voter who doesn’t vote.
Condition #3: An unregistered voter who meets all the requirements to be able to cast a ballot but never registered.
Now’s the time to pay attention, Graham: in all three conditions a ballot was cast, and the following are the reasons:
In Condition #1, the ballot went for whomever or whatever the voter wanted.
In Condition #2, even though a ballot was not cast, it could’ve been cast; therefore, this “uncast ballot” AUTOMATICALLY goes to the side that received the most ballots and won because it COULD’VE been cast and possibly changed the outcome of the election.
Condition #3 is exactly the same as Condition #2.
Now we’ve all heard people proclaim that they “didn’t vote” in a certain election where, in reality, they did cast their ballot for WHOEVER WON.
Now do you get the picture, Graham? Benjamin was telling us that you cannot shirk you patriotic duty by “not voting;” it’s just not possible unless, of course, you are not qualified to vote.
Now you’ve stated publicly that you “will not vote.” What you did, Graham, was publicly state that you have no concept or understanding of the reality of the vote. This is not some sophomoric, drunken, drug-induced Saturday night debate: it’s a plain and simple fact. For those who could vote, but don’t, their vote goes to whoever wins.
And so, Mr. Graham, if you don’t vote for Trump, and Hillary wins, guess what? You just voted for Hillary; now how does that make you feel, or how does that make everyone else feel about you?
Not much.
Sincerely,
Graham is what is wrong with this country. Time he was replaced