{"id":9271,"date":"2011-10-27T09:36:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T16:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=9271"},"modified":"2019-12-23T15:48:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T23:48:15","slug":"occupy-the-vote-make-a-difference-occupythevote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2011\/10\/27\/occupy-the-vote-make-a-difference-occupythevote\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupy the Vote. Make a Difference. #occupythevote"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:2983,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\\\/html\\\/localnews\\\/2016618143_apwaelectionturnout.html?syndication=rss&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\\\/html\\\/localnews\\\/2016618143_apwaelectionturnout.html?syndication=rss&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2984,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/#!\\\/search?q=%23occupythevote&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;pending&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Washington state is <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/localnews\/2016618143_apwaelectionturnout.html?syndication=rss\" title=\"Seattle Times: 47 percent 'turnout' predicted for Wash. election\">expecting a <em>47%<\/em> turnout<\/a> in this election &#8212; and people bitch and moan about how nothing ever changes.<\/p>\n<p>I support the #occupy movement. But I&#8217;ve got a sneaking suspicion that if every one of the #occupy protesters actually voted, there are a lot of races that wouldn&#8217;t be as close as they end up being. If every #occupy protester told their friends to vote &#8212; and not just, &#8220;you should vote,&#8221; but &#8220;no, seriously, YOU SHOULD VOTE, we&#8217;re going to the polls\/filling out our ballots <em>now<\/em>,&#8221; a lot of races wouldn&#8217;t even be close.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, protests are important. Yes, we need to make our voices heard. But we also need to remember that shouting in the streets <em>isn&#8217;t<\/em> the only way to make our voices heard. Fill out your ballot. Put it in the mail. Put it in a drop box. If you don&#8217;t live somewhere where you can vote by mail, then take the hour out of your day to go to the polls.<\/p>\n<p>But don&#8217;t ignore your right to vote, then bitch because nothing ever changes.<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t whine that &#8220;my vote doesn&#8217;t make a difference,&#8221; or &#8220;it&#8217;s just one vote.&#8221; Over the past couple decades, we&#8217;ve seen too many elections, national and local, where recounts were triggered because the final tally was so close. A few more votes &#8212; those tiny, insignificant, single votes &#8212; all of a sudden aren&#8217;t so minuscule.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/search?q=%23occupythevote\" title=\"Twitter: #occupythevote\">#occupythevote<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, protests are important. Yes, we need to make our voices heard. But we also need to remember that shouting in the streets _isn&#8217;t_ the only way to make our voices heard. Fill out your ballot. Put it in the mail. Put it in a drop box. If you don&#8217;t live somewhere where you can vote by mail, then take the hour out of your day to go to the polls. #occupythevote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14,363],"class_list":["post-9271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}