Thread: www.VOIDnow.com - Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy

There's a new website called www.VOIDnow.com , which stands for "Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy". It was just created about a month ago.

The idea is to get our government to finally focus on our interests (like stopping "illegal immigration") by "throwing the bumbs out."

I really believe this needs to be done. I always like to bring up the shocking re-election rate of our U.S. House members. In 2000, the re-election rate was 98%. And it was 98% for 2002 and 2004 too.

With so little turnover, it's really no wonder that our reps do NOT care what we think. Some of them may even believe they're doing a great job, as we keep re-electing them.

And why should they care what we think, if we re-elect them no matter what they do?

Well, of course, they should care, just because they're supposed to be representing us. But they don't and they won't, as long as we keep re-electing them.

So, the point of www.VOIDnow.com is to get people to vote for one of the challengers to the incumbents for all election races, with no exceptions. In other words, you may want to vote for a 3rd party challenger or one of the main-party challengers. Either way, you put pressure on the incumbent.

The website www.VOIDnow.com says that it's "non-partisan, all partisan", which means that all are welcome, whether they be Republicans, Democrats, independent, or a supporter of one of the 3rd parties. And everyone would benefit from this anti-incumbent mission, which would force politicians to pay attention to the voters.

The website www.VOIDnow.com does have a variety of popular issues that it mentions, in the mission statement:
http://www.poliwatch.org/void/2005/10/v ... tement.php
Voters must do exactly what special interests threaten to do; withdraw support from those seeking reelection. If VOID is successful, newly elected politicians will have a much higher regard for the voters. Their agenda will include the voter's agenda and make their issues first priority. They will solve some of America's biggest problems like border security, sprialing health care costs, sprialing national debt and trade deficits, falling educational performance, growing poverty, and strengthening American senior's retirement years. And when these problems are solved, then it will be safe to vote for incumbents again: incumbents with a renewed respect for the American people and voters.

I think it's a great idea, but ideally, I think we should continue to vote for incumbents who are doing a good job, though in my opinion, that's less than 20% of the current Congress.

And I think we'd be better off getting rid of 100% of them than continuing to re-elect 98% of them in each election.

But of course, we won't be able to get rid of 100% in the near future, even if we try. And it sounds like the people working on www.VOIDnow.org plan to concentrate on the most vulnerable districts, which sounds sensible.

Anyway, I think it's a good idea.

I think this is an awesome idea. I had started posting third party platforms but the posts seem to keep getting lost.

There is a page: http://www.politics1.index.htm (I think) where you can get information on every party in the USA. Some are pretty interesting. I'm leaning toward the Constitutionalist Party but I like the platform of some of the others as well.

I also have suggested that everyone who is registered as a Democrat or a Republican wait until a few months before the next election and then change their registration to one of the parties.

I'm hoping for a really strong candidates who have real agendas and can beat the snot out of all except Congressman Tom Tancredo. We need him to lead the immigration reform because he is the most knowledgeable on that issue. I don't know of any others who are as strong as he is but my ears are open if someone else knows.

I'm with you all the way on this!

JuniusJnr, glad you're excited about the idea too.

By the way, the link you provided didn't work for me, but I know there are tons of 3rd parties. When I checked over at www.VoteSmart.org in 2004, I couldn't believe how many 3rd party candidates there were running for President.

Personally, my main loyalty is to the Anti-Incumbent Party. I don't care, as long as it's someone new.

But 3rd parties are good, because they help people to see that there's the possibility of a better world, with real leaders with real ideas and with real loyalty to this nation and its citizens.

If just a small percentage of people who normally vote for the Incumbent's party instead vote for the 3rd party, then this could really shake things up. In some of the weaker districts, incumbents have won by less than 10%. So, a 10% move to a 3rd party would be all it would take.

Or just a 5% move to the main opposing party, because that would be subtracting 5% from the Incumbent party and adding 5% to the main-party challenger.

I'm hoping for a really strong candidates who have real agendas and can beat the snot out of all except Congressman Tom Tancredo. We need him to lead the immigration reform because he is the most knowledgeable on that issue. I don't know of any others who are as strong as he is but my ears are open if someone else knows.

I created a scorecard on immigration and trade that shows some other good people besides Tancredo.
www.GlobalismScorecard.org/USHouseSortScore.htm

By the way, in case anyone here doesn't know already, trade and immigration are related. The ultimate goal of the "free trade agreements" is to erase our borders and turn us all into North American Citizens, and allow the unlimited flow of labor between borders. In other words, Mexicans will be able to legally come into this country as easily as South Carolinians will be able to come into North Carolina. Of course, none of us has any problem with the latter, but we don't want the former.

Besides Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and John Hostettler are big leaders.

Lost, they only bad thing I can see about voting for just any third party is that it splits the vote too many ways. We need ONE candidate on ONE third party that the majority can get behind and get elected. If not, then the businesses will buy the office for another Republican and who knows who that will be. Regardless of what we may think--those big businesses do contribute a great deal of money to the RNC and therefore it is going to take a really strong candidate with lots of contributions and volunteers to get a third party guy elected. We can gather together and contribute enough to ONE guy to out-do them but we can't split it fifty different ways and hope to accomplish the goal.

And it will be even harder for the state and local elections. We need to focus and organize, not just vote for "somebody else" just because they aren't a major party candidate. See what I mean?

OOPS! Lost, sorry about the link, I'll have to look it up later because I have to go to work in about ten minutes and I don't have time today.

I'll try to find it! I think you're right about needing just ONE strong, third-party candidate. We don't want the field so watered down that the incumbents end up succeeding despite our efforts.

I'll check out your site, Lost! Thanks. Sounds like a winner.

Junius--I THINK the thread you're looking for is "Centrist and Other Third Parties". Check that one out and see.

This is a great idea.
There are numerous benefits and reasons.
( http://home.comcast.net/~d.a.n/BenefitsAndReasons.htm )
It's ironically, the one simple thing we should have been doing all along.
I also promote http://VOIDnow.org at my web-site, http://One-Simple-Idea.com

JuniusJnr wrote:
Lost, they only bad thing I can see about voting for just any third party is that it splits the vote too many ways. We need ONE candidate on ONE third party that the majority can get behind and get elected.

JuniusJnr,
ONE candidate, and one or two parties is the problem.
And, we're really only (but not restricted to) primarily addressing federal offices.
The two party system has a strangle hold on government.
It gives rise to what we have now, where 98% of incumbents retain their seats every election. Incumbents have an extremely unfair advantage.
Not because voters like them. Because it takes a lot of money.
90% of elections are won by the candidate that spends the most.
Government shouldn't be FOR SALE !

Incumbents are so entrenched in petty, divisive, partisan warfare, so consumed with funding their election campaign war-chests, and so beholding to big money donors, that the incumbents are ignore The People and the many pressing problems facing the nation, which is threatening the future and security of the nation.

More choices and voting for non-incumbents will make it difficult for the big money donors to know who to buy.
The problem isn't that voters are always a bad choice of character.
The problem is that incumbents have hijacked government, and they are unaccountable as long as we believe they are our only choice.
Please don't be too hasty to reject the idea of VOIDnow.org, because the nation is facing many http://home.comcast.net/~d.a.n/Press...acingTheUS.htm serious problems and we may not have a lot of time. We need to restore a fair balance of power between government and The People soon, before we all learn the hard way (again).

I'm encouraging people to see http://VOIDnow.org because this is the most simple, easy, safe, inexpensive, non-partisan, non-divisive, peaceful, and responsible way to peacefully for government to be responsible and accountable too.

The nation may soon be facing some serious economic issues:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...ne-cover_x.htm
In view of so many serious issues culminating to create the perfect storm, a potential economic melt-down, The People should seriously consider if the way we've been doing it is working or not. I don't think so. Government continues to grow and grow to nightmare proportions.

The People have the choice.
It's been right under their nose all along.
These problems will eventually be worked out one way or another.
But, the question is:
(1) Will it be the hard, painful way (again; see cycle below) ?
(2) Or, the smart, responsible, less painful way ?
http://home.comcast.net/~d.a.n/The80YearCycle.gif

The People just need to remove their partisan blinders to see that the incumbents are the problem. The Status Quo is The Foe.

P.S. I used to be a Republican, but I now see that both sides (incumbents) are just taking turns being irresponsible and unaccountable.
I'm now non-partisan. I hope all third parties and independents are listening. There is a growing anti-incumbent sentiment. Why? Because people are starting to see they have been fooled by the incumbents, that won't tackle our serious problems, of which a majority of Americans already agree upon, for fear of risking re-election. There's something bass-ackwards here. The incumbents are the Status Quo. They ignore The People. The incumbents answer to their big money donors. Not us. When 5% of the most wealthy have 59% of all wealth, how can the rest of the lower-to-middle-income-class have an equal voice in government...a government that is FOR SALE ?
They can't.

I'm a PROUD INDEPENDENT and have been one for 40 years. I'm listening!

Originally Posted by JuniusJnr

Lost, they only bad thing I can see about voting for just any third party is that it splits the vote too many ways. We need ONE candidate on ONE third party that the majority can get behind and get elected. If not, then the businesses will buy the office for another Republican and who knows who that will be. Regardless of what we may think--those big businesses do contribute a great deal of money to the RNC and therefore it is going to take a really strong candidate with lots of contributions and volunteers to get a third party guy elected. We can gather together and contribute enough to ONE guy to out-do them but we can't split it fifty different ways and hope to accomplish the goal.

And it will be even harder for the state and local elections. We need to focus and organize, not just vote for "somebody else" just because they aren't a major party candidate. See what I mean?

JuniusJnr, I totally understand what you're saying here... If we want to get a 3rd party in power, then we must try to focus on one 3rd party rather than just encourage people to support one of the many 3rd parties that exist... If everyone picks a different 3rd party to support, then chances are none of the 3rd parties will get elected... Instead, one of the main parties will get elected, just as usual... And the status quo is definitely not acceptable.

But the goal of www.VOIDnow.com is not necessarily to get 3rd parties in power... The goal is to get the people in office (regardless of party) to pay attention to the voters.

The way www.VOIDnow.com hopes to accomplish this goal is by pushing incumbents out of office in favor of some new person, regardless of whether the new person is from a main party or a 3rd party... When incumbents start getting pushed out of office, then all politicians in power will start to wake up and pay attention to the citizens they are supposed to be representing.

As I frequently mention (but never tire of mentioning), the re-election rate of the U.S. House was 98% in the years 2000, 2002, and 2004... For all 3 elections, almost all incumbents who sought re-election got re-elected... As long as we keep re-electing them no matter what they do, they will not care about what we think.

But someone may rightly ask, how would this work?.. Well, let's take for example my incumbent House rep from Illinois, who's a Republican by the name of Ray LaHood.

Let's suppose I'm a Republican... If I agree with www.VOIDnow.com that we need to "throw the bumbs out", then I will vote either for the Democratic challenger or one of the 3rd party challengers (if there is one).

If I vote for a 3rd party challenger, then this will be 1 less vote for the Republican incumbent Ray LaHood... This is because as a Republican, I used to always vote for Ray LaHood, but now I'm voting 3rd party... In practice, this will probably mean I'm helping the Democratic challenger to get elected, but that's OK... My goal is to unseat the incumbent, while simultaneously sending a message that I'm displeased with both parties.

On the other hand, if I vote for the Democratic challenger, then this will be 1 less vote for Ray LaHood and 1 more vote for the main-party (democratic) challenger... This is because as a Republican, I used to always vote for Ray LaHood, but now I'm voting for a Democrat... This would really put a lot of pressure on the incumbent, because I'm simultaneously subtracting one vote from Ray LaHood and adding one vote to the Democratic challenger, which is the next most likely candidate to win.

But regardless of whether I vote for the main-party challenger or one of the 3rd-party challengers, I'm helping to oust the incumbent Ray LaHood.

I think it's a myth that there's a problem with the parties... As many of us know, there are a few good people in both parties... There are even Democrats in Congress who have a clear record showing they are against illegal immigration... The problem is not the parties, but the people in the parties... And the reason why most people in the parties are bad is because we don't hold them accountable by kicking them out of office when they ignore our interests.

So, what does everyone else think?.. Could this work?

Will you join the Anti-Incumbent Party (or perhaps call it the "Challengers Party" or the "Underdog Party")?.. It's a Big Tent Party with polls showing that about 70% of U.S. citizens disapprove of what the current members of Congress are doing...

So, hop on aboard... There's lots of room for you on the bandwagon
"The road may be rough, the weather may forget us
But won't we all parade around and sing our songs and wave our flags.
A magic kingdom, greet us all hello, greet us hello, greet us hello."
http://www.lyricsdomain.com/18/rem/bandwagon.html