I've mentioned this to a couple people that I would write this update. So after my 2nd job interview today, I found myself at Mocha Express. Somewhere between Beaverton and Portland, writing it. So strap in and get ready.

This November, I will not be voting. Nor do I condone the act of voting, or any of the candidates.

There have been some interesting figureheads such as Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. But they had their own issues (mostly Ron Paul being a blatant misogynist and Dennis Kucinich being a peace-will-fix-everything post-modern hippie/yuppie pile. But good lord his wife is hot). But the problem with all of it, is that YOUR VOTE DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I wish it did, truly. I truly wish that this democracy we live in was real and tangible. I wish every ballot cast was one more name for the change-bringing candidate of one's choice. But it's not.

Firstly, we don't live in a democracy.

de·moc·ra·cy
Pronunciation: \di-ˈmä-krə-sē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural de·moc·ra·cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos + -kratia -cracy
Date: 1576
1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Read closely. "...in which the supreme power is vest in the people"

The supreme power in this country, IS NOT THE PEOPLE. The supreme power in this country, or should I say, powers, are the corporations. The corporations are the people that make the stuff we by every day. And while you might be thinking, the corporations don't make the laws, they aren't the police, and they don't get elected by me, they do things much more important than all of those things. The corporations control you.

The corporations don't make the laws, the government does. That's absolutely true. But can the upper class of the fiscal population live on a mere $179,000 a year? Of course they can't. They are the leaders of this nation for Christ's sake! How dare they live within middle class means. So how do they exceed their measly $179,000 dollars every year? The corporations fuel them. Bribing you say? Maybe. No one would truly know for sure unless you yourself were being bribed. But these corporations fuel our government through lobbyists, through the funding of bills, candidacy funding, and greatest of all, through the personal agendas of many congressmen (including our president), that have fiscally realated corporate interests of their own.

So how is this relevant? That's where your vote is going. No where. These people are not elected, these people are generations of power-mongers that are a freight train of abuse and sheer animosity to the working class. I'd like to think that reading this far, you aren't an idiot, but just incase you are. It doesn't matter who's voting for who, because Fox is telling you that September 11th was masterminded by Osama BinLaden, a man who Dick Cheney is business partners with. It doesn't fucking matter because we've all gone to theaters and watched 20th Century Fox movies. It doesn't fucking matter because it's more than likely that we've read an owned newspaper, logged into Myspace, and/or have watched American Idol. Who all happen to be owned by one of the most twisted Republicans not directly involved with our government. NewsCorporation penetrates our lives in so many ways we don't even realize it. The next president will not be decided by a campaign ad, by a slogan, or by fucking hope. The next president will be decided by whatever the little box in our living room tells us it should be. And if you ignore it, you can hop on Myspace, read a newspaper, or go watch World Trade Center and feel warm and fuzzy about heroes dying for nothing more than capital gains.

Again. How is this relevant? While you may think your fellow 18-25 year old might be smarter than this. You might think that someone couldn't be influenced so easily, think again. In 2004, only 17% of you people even fucking voted. I don't know how many people have a like-minded thinking of choosing to abstain from voting like myself, but somehow I'm lead to believe that most Starbucks drinking, Marlboro cigarette smoking, meat-eating, McDonald's munching, Nike running, Gap wearing 18-25 year olds didn't give a flying fuck.

So let's say you did. Let's say that you voted for Kerry and your voice was heard, only to be edged out by W himself that fateful evening. Or let's go even further and say you voted for Gore and those goddamned hanging chads stole your vote. We'll examine that.

1.) Kerry would have won the race if 90,000 votes in Ohio had been counted and not thrown out. Instead, he threw out his chance to become your democratic savior and gave the election to his former secret society brother, George Bush. So ask yourself, why would your Democratic Jesus Christ simply give away his win to his supposed bane?

2.) Gore won. Over half a million people chose Gore over Bush. And due to the bullshit electoral college system, he was cheated out of it. Furthermore, the supreme court looked upon the recount situation in Florida and essentially said, "we project that Bush won these counties, so we're going to give the state to him". And you may ask yourself, "How could the Supreme Court, the highest, most thorough, and most just court in all of the land, make a decision like that?" They cite the 14th amendment in reference to due process being unachievable by December 12th, 2000. So let's recap, instead of recounting the counties that Gore could have won (he already won over 500,000 people across the country over Bush), they gave them to Bush because it would take too long to recount.

Now, let's recap the past 8 years of electoral history.

Let's say you love the electoral college system ("The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President"), and instead of your voice being heard directly, you love the idea of a group of people casting their 1 in 50 vote for the president. And instead of them being legally bound to cast their vote based upon the popular dictation of the citizens of the state, they, and they alone, formally dictate the next president.

Let's say you love that idea.

The past two Democratic incumbents have both won, and instead of taking up their arms as the people's choice of leadership, they both bowed out within the spotlight of the media. Leaving us under the watchful, intelligent, and aware guidance of George Walker Bush.

You've read this far. You realize that I haven't said a word about the war (please be aware I am far too tired and have spent way to long in this coffee shop to even touch that). Please tell me you see the connections and ties between corporations and their control on us. Please tell me you see how the media shapes and contorts our minds to their likings, while the lawmakers and the highest in our government are swindled into bills and laws that benefit the rich and powerful and disenfranchise the poor and weak. Please tell me you see how corrupt our government us from the top, all the way to the state. Please tell me you see how your vote has been thrown away for the past 8 year (if you even utilized it). And tell me you angry.

Tell me you want things to be different and tell me you are sick and tired of your opinions, your voice, and your needs falling upon deaf ears.

Here's what you do.

Don't vote.

You're probably still thinking, this guy is out of his mind. We have to keep voting because things might change, things could be different. Let me tell you, things aren't changing. We haven't had a chance since 1913. And while you may not be convinced, here's what I propose.

We don't vote.

We. The people of the United States. The citizens. The lower class, the homeless, the wandering, the poor. The middle class. The hard working. The "barely making ends meet" families. WE.

Don't. We abstain from. We don't support them by supporting their game. We don't support their broken system. We don't support the bent politicians. And most of all, we don't support their overruling power.

Vote. We don't vote because we don't want to relinquish our power as citizens. The armies have been raised upon us. The media surrounds us. The powerful try to disembody our collective. The constitution is broken. But we have to resist.

We have to resist because our opinions are powerful, our ability to rule ourselves is apparent, and our hatred for disenfranchisement is real.

If you would like to be a beaten down citizen, if you'd like to throw away your power as an individual, and if you'd like to play their game, become their pawn, and agree with all of their shortcomings. Then by all means. Vote.

But if you'd like to have your voice heard, empower someone around you. Explain and encourage abstaining from voting. Because if no one is playing their game, they have no pawns to throw away. If no one votes, then no one wins. And if no one wins, no one rules. And when no one rules, we can finally rule ourselves.

FInally, I'd like for anyone reading with criticizing in mind, to please understand this. I am not perfect. You probably found my blog, from a link on my Myspace. I am not an example of perfection and there are loopholes in all aspects of my opinions and personal actions. Having a Myspace is not a crime against humanity, nor is it a fantastically awful thing. But understand that this is what you're surrounded with. Corporate control. Above and beyond where you find yourself, you have to remain true to the understanding that in order for humanity to continue, we must be humane. Our choices are real and do reflect upon others and our lives alike. But voting is a game that they want you to play. And if you don't like the way their game is played, you have something much more powerful than a vote. The choice to stop playing.

Obama, McCain, Bush, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Nixon, Eisenhower, FDR, they all have one thing in common. They're all playing the same game. And the prize that's costed trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the theft of your votes.

Your fear. Your compliance. Your attention. Your distraction. And your vote.

Watch Zeitgeist and Loose Change for more information on how you've been fucked.