Why one of my people refused to vote:

[BarackTheVote]

50. Big lofty ideas of an arm-chair intellectual

I agree with a lot of the sentiment, but it's just intellectual masturbation if you don't have a practical end-game in mind. The system will never be "delegitimized" by not voting. You don't need a quorum of the electorate to vote to legitimize an election (maybe that's something to work toward). Millennials need to get this through their heads: You don't trust anyone running for office? Run yourself. You don't like the person who won the party nomination? Don't vote less, vote MORE, vote in the primaries, support the candidate of YOUR choosing with blood, sweat, and tears.

There IS a way to defeat big money in this country, but it ain't by not voting. It's by tuning out the paid-for air-time and actually looking at candidate's records. MONEY DOESN'T HAVE TO MATTER. They spend their money on ads, radio and TV, and fliers, and travel for stump speeches and to pay for the ground game--passive shit, which you're by no means required or impelled to consume. The people who vote tend to eat that stuff up, while the disillusioned don't show up. As was said up-thread, if all the progressives turned up, there would never be another Republican in office (except in horrifically gerrymandered House races, of course).

I know this was a little bit word salady, but the thing that frustrates me most is that these are intelligent people, they just don't come up with the right answers. BTW, the end game is a crashed system, not just a protest. A lot of millennials I know legit want to see something apocalyptic happen to reboot the nation. We entered the race way in the back because of how badly the silent generation fucked us before we were even born. We look around us and don't see any new frontier to run to to get away from debt and start fresh. So they want to manufacture a new frontier. Ever wondered why zombie movies, TV shows, and comics are so popular with Millennials? That's why. A lot of us don't see any hope in the present rigged system. But don't worry, they won't actively pursue any of this; they'll do it through passive aggression.