I've always been very extreme in my stance toward voting,
and as a result have never voted once in my life.
I still sincerely believe that voting only allows a certain amount of change,
yet never addresses that which really needs changing most:
the horribly fraudulent distribution of land, resources and wealth of our planet.
Inheritances of property and wealth have enabled this problem to
grow to extreme proportions, resulting in the world we see today.
The concept of "ownership", whether it be of wealth, land or resources,
is at the core of Capitalism, which is at the core of Taxation,
which is at the core of Government.
Therefore, imho, we cannot bring forth drastic fundamental change in
land-, wealth-, and resource distribution through elections.

Now, as an immigrant, having lived in the US since 2007,
I've been thinking and debating a lot because of all this 'hype' around the elections.
Also, I've educated myself on some political issues,
with documentaries like "Jesus Camp" and the "Israeli Lobby"
really shocking me to the core...
Eventually, I reached the conclusion that the best thing to do for any
"anarchist, rebel, punk, hippy, progressive, or liberal, or whatever",
is to vote for the Obama - Biden ticket.
Why?
Simply because of the realization that no matter what I do,
I vote anyway.
My actions, or lack thereof, count.
3rd party votes won't cut it; the race is obviously between McCain and Obama.
Millions of very religious US citizens are told that they might not go to heaven,
if they don't vote Republican.
Not voting therefore simply equals empowering the McCain/Palin-camp.

You could of course shrug and say:
"It doesn't matter, it's all just a dog-and-pony show", and I wouldn't necessarily disagree.
There's a lot to say for certain conspiracy theories.
But how will you feel if you DIDN'T vote, and McCain wins;
compared to how you would feel if you DID vote, and McCain wins?
Or compared to how you will feel if you DID vote and Obama wins?
There's 4 scenario's here, so which one is more appealing to you,
besides not having voted, and Obama winning?

Sure the elections can get rigged, and eventually it's up to the electoral college to decide
if they're even gonna use your vote, but it undeniably still means a lot to a lot of people.
If anything, you can at least have decent conversations with people coz if McCain wins,
every debate about a better world you will have with someone will start with:
"But did you vote or not?"
Then you quickly go: "Yes, I did, but did it help?"

If this passionate "Change" movement wins over the republican, religious conservatives,
it could have great benefits for the non-political grassroots "Change" campaigns,
even the anarchist ones, ...especially if Obama turns out to be just another lying sack of schijt.
Hopefully, all these people donating money and time to Obama's campaign right now will keep donating them,
in pursuit of a better world, which I think is more likely to happen if Obama wins.
Then he's gotta bring it; and if there truly is a conspiracy, it will show.

This world needs a LOT more changing than just a President,
and in order for us to facilitate such drastic change we need to be able to change ourselves,
inspire others to change themselves, speak freely, protest freely, think & write freely, sing & dance freely,
spread information without censorship freely... etc. etc.
Between McCain/Palin & Obama/Biden, who are more likely to let us?
Book burning, anyone?

Then, after all these realizations, I made the move;
I went to register as a voter, and I discovered I'm not yet eligible.
I'm still a Resident Alien, not a citizen...

Well, the current U.S. president has in his 8 years in office affected many lives worldwide,
and not for the better, as I'm sure most here will agree.
Yet many of these people, if not most,
have no right to vote whatsoever on the US presidency.

Do you?