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Comment by bpodgursky | Hacker News Reader

Over a tea tax without representation. Very common to forget that part!

Yep. We asked for the nightmare we've brought upon ourselves

Like it's common to forget, or not mention more trivial aspects like land something something, and that a whole lot were literally wealthy men from just one place, merchants (smugglers someone said?), some people owed someone else? nope?, slavery etc? Don't think so :D

Do 84 year olds on life support count as representation?

According to voting turnout: yes. That's the thing the 70+ year old voterbase learned from their peak working year.

And yet there are still so many working class people who try to profess how "voting is useless, it doesn't change anything".

In American style representative democracy there certainly are places where voting is useless depending on your political affiliation.

Useless because everyone around you genuinely thinks differently from you? Or useless because said 70+ yo retired asset owners with more means to vote without more than the working class?

Big difference in issue. You can't gerrymander a local bill so those kinds of votes are arguably more important than nationals. And you'd be surprised how big a difference a visit with a few dozen of your peers can make to a townhall meeting. That's something we seem to forget until our backs are truly to a wall.

Only if you are too stubborn to register as the dominant party and vote in the primary.

"Voting works, you just need to compromise your beliefs and pretend to be someone that hates everything you believe in to participate!"

Hallmark of a healthy democracy.

I think that's an exaggeration, everyone does this in a FPTP system. I've never voted for a candidate in any party I particularly liked, you just pick the closest.

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