^It’s pretty simple, and not at all how you just interpreted it.
If you do not take the only opportunity to have a say in the way your country functions, you can’t turn around and complain about the way your country functions. It’s not the same as choosing not to support Stubhub. However, if Stubhub/TM gave you the opportunity to attend a meeting on their scalping policies and have your voice heard and you refused, well… I would say you have no right to complain about scalping.
Make sense?
Bingo. If you choose to give up your opportunity to change an outcome, you are not entitled to complain about said outcome.
don’t blame me, I voted Skywalker.
It’s a charade when intelligent potential voters become apathetic and refuse to exercise their constitutional right. If the election results reflected the voices of every citizen and not just those who are motivated enough to go to the polls, many of today’s elections would end very differently.
When I disagree with every option on the ballot, I’m not going to vote. I’m not going to vote for any candidate; the lesser of two evils is still evil! I’m not going to lend any evil any sort of endorsement. If I could give a vote of no confidence, I would. Now, if there were items on the ballot that would affect my local government (you’re delusional if you think you have any say in national/international politics) I would vote for those items.
The saying “If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain” is nothing but bullshit, it implies that the only voice you have is the ballot box. What ever happened to marches, protests, strikes, riots?
^So go and write in a candidate you feel comfortable with. Have you researched all the candidates? Green Party? Peace & Freedom? Libertarian?
Voting against the mainstream or the status quo is commendable. Apathy is not.
I didn’t vote because I slept too late and didn’t even realize it was election day until 5 minutes ago when I started reading this thread. 
Seriously, if people don’t want to vote, that is their choice; don’t come down on them for it. Just feel good about the fact that you voted, and be on your merry way. Even if I had realized that today was election day, I wouldn’t have voted because I was not well-informed about any of the candidates. All I saw was ads saying, “Heath Shuler is the devil” or “Jeff Miller is an asshole” or “Heath Shuler = Nancy Pelosi” or “Jeff Miller = George Bush”. 
Get that pathetic rhetoric outta here.
For the record, I do feel that voting makes a difference, in fact I know it does, but it’s a right that you have, and it’s also your right not to vote. Fair is fair.
I voted absentee a couple of weeks ago. Since I didn’t want to vote for the bipartisan candidates I wrote in my old mayor, Jim McGreevey.
^Right on. See, that’s what I’m talking about. 
I voted last week. Although I’m not a fan of Harry Reid, I voted for him. It was the lesser of two evils. That Sharon Angle scares me. Harry didn’t do a whole bunch for his state the past few years, mind you. We’re ground zero for the housing crisis and what has he done? Zilch… But Angle scares me a whole lot more…
^Good man, Mr. Marley!!
The thought of that Sharon Angle person in our Senate is somewhat terrifying… I hope ol’ Harry eeks out a win. He won’t be the Senate leader anymore, regardless. That’s for sure.
Angle is just pain NUTS!!! 
Good thing I don’t have to deal with any of that nonsensical political mumbo jumbo.
Yet. 
My problem with this you didn’t vote you can’t complain thing is this…If your choice is Bad and Worse, why the fuck vote for either? It’s not rational to vote for either because essentially your saying well its bad, but it could be worse? Why can’t there be a politician that isn’t a complete jackass? They only give a shit about us once every 2 or 4 years so why do we care about them at all? They act like we are pawns in this bull shit game they like to call REAL LIFE. When someone actually has a view point that isn’t insane and actually uphold it then talk to me. I didn’t vote today, for the first time in the 8 years I have been able to I finally said no. No more bull shit white lies, no more promises that are empty, if someone wants my vote, earn it. Show me that you DESERVE my vote by doing what you say. Don’t say one thing, get into office, and fall into the same routine that all the other politicians have done before them.
So to those of you who voted for Bad instead of worse, you my friends are the ones who are wrong. The ones who tell Washington its ok to fuck everyone over, just use lube.
Ok sorry for the rant 
But seriously nothing will change until someone does something about it.
“The supposition that the future resembles the past, is not founded on arguments of any kind, but is derived entirely from habit.” (David Hume, 1737
It seems evident from the election results last night that generally the country is dissatisfied with the direction Washington has taken the country in the past two years. And this is a valid point for the public at large to express through their votes considering the extremes of the national debt, unemployment, and the continued military efforts in Afghanistan.
What bothers me most at this point is the fact that this frustration was only demonstrated in the shift in power in Congress and not in the Senate, as there was hardly a corresponding percentage of change in those races. Certainly some of that can be blamed on the moronic qualities of some of the challengers, but I’m not convinced that it provides the real key to the difficulties of ousting encumbent senators as opposed to congressmen.
And that key is obviously the money being spent for senatorial elections. The net worth of the senators in this country is nothing short of obscene, and I don’t mind them bringing their wealth into the job, I just have problems with wealth being the main criteria for winning the seat, and that’s pretty much what elections have come down to. So I understand the frustrations of some of the OKP as stated above about the electoral processes in this country. Like the legal system, it’s not the law or the personal competence of a candidate that matters, but how much money you have to spend for your lawyer, or for your campaign respectively.
So I went looking to see if there was some internet site that compiled the net worth of senators before they were elected and now, to see how much being a senator has feathered their pockets, but as yet, I haven’t found such information. What I did find was a site that demonstrated how the ten wealthiest senators invested their money, and in some respects, this may prove more beneficial for us peons who are virtually helpless to oust these mega millionaires. We may be better off joining the healots by investing the way they do, than being frustrated at the fact that we cannot defeat them even with our votes.
Check this site out: http://insidertrading.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001580
SO… went to bed last night thinking the evil, democracy hating, Medical Marijuana raiding Republican, Steve Cooley, would be my next Attorney General. 
Woke up this morning to find his challenger ahead by less than 25,000 votes, with 97% of precincts reporting.
Every vote counts!
I nearly didn’t vote. I have a friend who is passionate about all things world power, and I generally respect his opinions on these things a whole lot. Anyway he posted on facebook recently something to the effect of “Don’t vote - you’ll only encourage them.”
I’m with Brady. I actually meant to vote, but worked all day and then got busy making dinner and it truly slipped my mind. But really, what were my choices, lol?
I don’t know why I’m surprised at the results. Americans don’t want change. They want what they know even if it sends the country into turmoil. Einstein said (paraphrasing) ‘the height of insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results’. It took republicans 12 years to fuck everything up. Did they really expect it to be fixed in 2 years? Honestly, I think that in order for us to fix all that’s wrong and move in a positive direction, we basically need to gut most of the policies that have been made and start from scratch. I’m not stupid enough to think that that could ever happen, but considering the current state of affairs, it seems to be the most logical step.
Think that largely the public is confused. And it’s apparently obvious why. The media feeds the circus of emotion while failing to inform (see Fox News in particular). So while I agree that people are generally dissatisfied, I think the blame is misplaced. The messes we are in are not a result of the past two years. They were created over many years prior. The attempts to resolve and stabilize have helped, and improved upon the previous trend. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the facts.
In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month.
In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration’s final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion.
On Bush’s final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. As of Nov. 2, 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183.
Alas, we’ve managed to give the shovel back to the crooks largely responsible for digging this hole.
Beyond this, I’d say that the amount of money sloshing around in this election cycle is the biggest threat to drowning our democracy. The recent Supreme Court decision that allows unlimited funds to come from anonymous sources only serves to strangle reason and truth, creating an emotional and ignorant electorate. Jefferson turns somersaults in his grave.