Thread: Obamas' Night Out

Was participation higher before you joined the EU?

Originally Posted by Elliette

Was participation higher before you joined the EU?

EU voting is traditionally low, but participation in general is pretty decent for the individual government elections. My government (originally from Holland) apparently makes it quite an administrative issue if you want to vote from abroad. We'll see when there are new elections there.

Elliette before we joined we did not vote for a EU-parliament at all.
It only exists since 1979

Originally Posted by 0livia

Elliette before we joined we did not vote for a EU-parliament at all.
It only exists since 1979

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my question - was election participation in general greater before you joined? Greater turnout for more local/national votes? And, come to that, are the numbers for local elections better than for the EU ones now?

I hope you're not a complainer just for the complaining.

Originally Posted by Elliette

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my question - was election participation in general greater before you joined? Greater turnout for more local/national votes? And, come to that, are the numbers for local elections better than for the EU ones now?

This is what I tried to express earlier (because I thought you are under this belief): There are still local governments (local as in country ) and in general the elections for these governments are well attended.

I knew you retained local governance, of course, I just wondered if the turnout was down for all elections since the EU came into effect, or just for the EU-related ones..

I complain wherever I see it is needed.

The participation generally decreased during the last twenty years.
It doesn't have much to do with EU IMO.
Its people being fed up with politics at all.
(Which is crap of course. If you're not satisfied with what you get you must vote for what you want.)

As much as I cannot stand the man's politics, he is the President. It's a tough job, spending most of your day on plans to tax and control the masses as well as thwarting the Constitution. He needs a break occasionally. It would be very tough for me to authorize billions of dollars to Chrysler and GM only to have them go right under within weeks. Bad decisions can take a lot out of you. Every Wednesday there's a party at the White House. I used to party a lot, too......I know how much that can take out of you. Good lord, he's a busy man, even The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler needs to get away from it all for a couple of hours.

That money is from a budget anyway. The Secret Service people get paid regardless. The vehicles and equipment are already paid for. At that point, what's a couple of thousand gallons of fuel and a landing fee? It's been budgeted for. If the Secret Service ever runs over budget, which I doubt it ever will, no problem.......the Fed will just print whatever money it needs.

There's a few luxuries in life the President should be afforded. To go see a show? I don't really have a problem with that. He's a person, too.

What about really pressing matters? He's closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. What are we going to do with all of the inmates? This man wants to tax us for TRILLIONS of dollars......not a peep out of anyone. Government run health care? TRILLIONS more. What about the other unfunded obligations like Social Security and Medicare? Again, more trillions. Global carbon tax? A couple of more trillions. No border fence? Billions more. Here we are criticizing him over a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

You've all been duped by the media. A media that got this man elected on the pretense that there would be change. This is yet another clever distraction and you've fallen for it.

Nothing to see here, move along......

Originally Posted by Elliette

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my question - was election participation in general greater before you joined? Greater turnout for more local/national votes? And, come to that, are the numbers for local elections better than for the EU ones now?

No, not really. Over here, voting is mandatory. We always have a >90% turnout for all elections.
Mandatory voting was introduced to keep the landowners and factory bosses from pressuring their people into staying at home. I am still in favor of it. Showing up once every couple of years to say who gets to run the country is not too much imo.

Btw, you don't have to vote. You just have to turn up. In the voting booth you can choose not to vote.

Had to vote 2 times today.

Once for EU and once about whether or not a female, should she be born before a male, should have the right to inherit the throne - ppfffffth what is the world comming to! What's next? They get to vote?
Just kidding of course they will never be allowed to vote.

Another note. An hour before the booths closed today 55,4% of the population had already voted, so depending on how many did it in the last hour it is going to be a little higher.