This is the message I sent out to the Election Boycott community for Thanksgiving:

This Thanksgiving, in addition to all the many things I have to be thankful
for, like having a roof over my head, food to eat, not being in the middle of
a war or natural (these days often more properly described as man-made)
catastrophe, and having a computer where I can connect with wonderful friends
and colleagues like you, I cannot help but also be thankful for nothing. Let
me explain.

Many voters describe boycotting elections as "doing nothing." An awful lot of
people did nothing in this election, choosing not to vote, and voter turnout
decreased in all fifty states. So when I read about and saw pictures from the
Israeli bombardment of Gaza, I was truly grateful that none of us had voted
for it. It was called an "elections war," and while the bombardment of
civilians who have no army, navy, air force, or bomb shelters, by a nuclear
superpower like Israel, cannot truthfully be called a war, it certainly had
everything to do with elections. First the attack was postponed until after
the US election, so that the two major party candidates couldn't be questioned
about their positions, and then it was carried out soon afterwards to help get
out the vote for the upcoming Israeli elections.

Nobody in the US can claim that they didn't know that more genocide would be
the result of the 2012 election, no matter who they voted for and no matter
who won. The electorate can be excused for the wars of aggression based on
lies begun by Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan, because a majority of people voted
for Gore, truly believing that he would not have done such things. That is
debatable--given the false flag operation of 9/11 and the briefings about it
that any President would have received from corrupt and complicit intelligence
agencies, it is very likely that Gore would have had no choice but to start
those wars. Voters can, of course, share in the blame for Bush's second term.
Knowing that their votes didn't have to be counted, why did they continue to
vote?

The electorate certainly knew they were voting for genocide in 2008, as Obama
had committed to expanding the Bush wars, and he not only did so, every time
his ratings dropped, which was frequently, he'd start a new war to try to keep
his popularity up. It seems to have worked for him, as he was handily
reelected with a 57% turnout, proving that although every voter knew that no
matter who won, the genocides would continue, they preferred voting for
genocide to "doing nothing." How can I not be grateful to those who chose to
do nothing?

Although Obama did remove the less expensive and more controversial US troops
from Iraq, he replaced them with 100,000 mercenaries, employees of private
military corporations, in a US embassy in Iraq the size of the Vatican that is
meant to remain there permanently and will always need such protection. Having
seen their country, a prosperous, modern, secular state where, thanks to
Sadaam Hussein, Al Quedah dared not show its face, turned into a
fundamentalist religious battlefield where terrorists operate freely and
entire cities are nothing more than bombed out rubble, Iraqis will never be
grateful to the US perpetrators who killed their families and destroyed their
country.

I am grateful to those who sincerely want peace and know that you cannot bring
about an end to wars by running for office or voting in a capitalist
imperialist system whose economy and political philosophy is and always has
been based on genocide for profit.

Of course I am also thankful for those in the Election Boycott Movement who
worked as hard as we could to explain why people should withhold their consent
from a rigged winner-take-all system in which the only possible winners would
be corporate funded warmongers.

And most of all I am grateful to those of us who are still working without
missing a beat, trying to get people to withhold their consent from a system
that most voters admit doesn't represent them.

It isn't an easy task. Many people will not listen, as they are totally
convinced that even acting against their own best interests is better than
"doing nothing." So this Thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude to those
who did nothing to participate in sham elections, did nothing to support a
capitalist imperialist system, and did nothing to make it appear to the world
that the United States government has the support of its people.

The dedication of activists and the decreased turnout is the most positive
thing I've seen in six years of Election Boycott advocacy. If refusing to do,
participate in, or consent to evil is doing nothing, then the more people who
do nothing, the less evil there will be in the world. So from the bottom of my
heart, this Thanksgiving I can truly say, thanks for nothing!

--Mark