This is an interesting thought and I recently had a situation where I found myself doing something that might be considered apathetic I. I am always the type who exercises their vote. We had some elections n November too. Don't worry, we didn't change government and you missed it ( unfortunately) . They were for an elected position to head the police for each area, not the chief constable, but an overseer. We do not have a tradition of electing people to positions like this. We have always had an administration independent of politics. Our civil service is totally unelected, career bureaucrats who work for whichever administration happens to be in charge.
Anyhow,like a lot of people I felt that even if I turned out and spoiled the ballot I would be seen to have validated the election. So i actively decided not to vote. We were right, spoilt ballots were counted in turnout which was around the fifteen percent level. Also , predictably despite a lot of yack about getting independent people involved in this the only people with the fundng to run a campaign were the political parties so in all but one area it was a candidate fronting either conservative or labour who won. The government says that the process has been validated which is a load of bollux but hey ho we will soldier on. It Is not a big enough issue for anyone to lose any sleep over but it suggests a creeping politicisation of wider public life that clearly the majority of us don't want here. Hopefully the massive lack of interest in the process will put them off similar steps in future.

Good for you.  Being politically active is much better than being politically apathetic. 

Thanks, a good read.

I'm glad that I had the experience to work in the call center.  I got to meet some interesting people and talk to many people in extended conversations on the phone after the 'message' was delivered.  I met a couple of Kool-Aid drinkers and tried to cool them down and open their eyes a little bit to the facts that 'our guy' wasn't the second coming either, just the guy we hoped would defeat Obama and alter the course of things for a little while.  Their support seemed to more fear based than anything else.

The 'messages' and questions that we did with the calls seemed to be a bit lame at times.  I did also notice that as the election got closer, more answering machines were just plain turned off because of the shear volume of political calls being made in Ohio.  The calls being made were mostly to 40+ yo.  At least that is who answered most of the calls.  Interesting factoid about the dimishing use of landlines.  Not a surprise but when put into the context of elections, an eye opener.

I would do it again.  Ideally, I would like to offer my services to a 3rd party candidate.  It might require a stint with the Dems to learn their ways and apply them to a 3rd P candidate.  As it stands now, there is only one R I could support for 2016 and that is Rand Paul.  I will be keeping a watchful eye on him and see what he does between now and then.  Odds are he would go 3rd P, if he does try.

Next up 2014.

A very interesting read.  Kurtster (if I remember, you worked a call center) might be interested in the part about the cost effectiveness of centralized call centers.

RootsCamp: Meet the hip geeks who beat Mitt Romney and helped Barack Obama

At least one Republican strategist attended, and chronicled what he learned:

What I Learned at RootsCamp

And how much is charged too. Pharma and all contractors for the military industrial complex need to be regulated for price gouging.  Something Obamacare was woefully inadequte in addressing and we will all pay for it.

We also spend considerably more than other countries on defense and health care. And we are certainly not the top in either category. Maybe we need to look at how we spend, not how much we spend.

We also spend considerably more than other countries on defense and health care. And we are certainly not the top in either category. Maybe we need to look at how we spend, not how much we spend. 

In the Preamble to The Constitution, The Framers were quite specific on priorities: PROVIDE for the common defence (sic) ... PROMOTE the general welfare. It goes beyond a stretch to suggest they found education to be as or more important than defense. As for education, the US spends considerably more than any other nation: we have not neglected our kids, we have failed them.

Kurster,
Greetings! Hope life is dealing you a good hand. Retirement is great...now 2 years  into it.
mk

Good to see ya !

Hope your retirement is going well.

In the Preamble to The Constitution, The Framers were quite specific on priorities: PROVIDE for the common defence (sic) ... PROMOTE the general welfare. It goes beyond a stretch to suggest they found education to be as or more important than defense. As for education, the US spends considerably more than any other nation: we have not neglected our kids, we have failed them.

But the gist of his comment is that we as a society have neglected the very things that made this country the most powerful nation in history. Our founders recognized the value of providing education, independent of the church and funded by general expenditures. They recognized education is just as important, maybe moreso, as national defense. We have neglected a vital aspect of our nation's infrastructure, the education of our children, and we are reaping the results.

You and everyone else who says this are just plain wrong on so many levels. 

Understood.

I took your post as making a similar point to what I then posted. I was extrapolating off of your post.  

Yeah, the wallpaper idea looked good on paper, but just hasn't gotten off the ground.  With a subsidy ...

And admittedly I'm killing time.  Just trying to suck the air out of some partisan sails and out of my own head.

Someone famous said to effect, that if voting was meant to work, they wouldn't let us do it.

We cannot measure the silent millions.  Polls just don't do it.

So beware the spaghetti about to fly at the wall ...

Time to make voting day a national holiday.  Time for purple fingers.

Give every voter a $100 tax credit.  You would have to file to get it.  Might bring in enough people to vote and also have more people file taxes and actually pay them raising some tax revenue that may offset the costs of the votes.

Or go off the finacial cliff.  That might wake up a few people, too.