No offa, i did not vote.
I am pro europe.
When the US decides to attack someone, i want europe to have 1 opinion, not half of the governments crawling after bush, licking his but while far most europeans are strongly opposed to such an attack. Of course i am talking about iraq here, i still feel very agrivated about the situation back then, espescially the decisions from the dutch government. At that moment i wished chiraq was president of europe.
With the future globalisation and new world powers comming up in asia, i think it is better to have a strong europe. Not military, but economically.
It probably sounds very lame, but i didn't went to vote because the differences were so big that a victory for no was a sure thing. It felt useless to go vote.
Also, while i am pro europe and would have prefered a yes result, if the result turns out no, i rather have a sound no than a doubtfull no.
If there would have been a doubtfull no, either our government would not follow it, causing great unrest in the netherlands and further destroying the very poor confident in our government. This would not be good for our national political situation. If they would have take over a the no with a small difference, it would not matter for the situation in europe.
However, many of the voters voted no not because they are against europe, but because they are against our government (yes, unfortunately people are not smart enough to vote with the right reasons). A sound no like this made that obvious even to our oblivious government. A closer result would not have had the same result.
Up to yesterday, the sitting government did not really give any usefull information. They only dismissed the NO-arguments, spread a little propaganda flyer and tried to cause fear for our position in europe when we vote no.
The result might have some positive results for the national political situation. It will probably be a small effect as the politicians are quite hard headed and it aint too easy to get trough to them. They have absolutely no connection with the people.
Also might this result have a positive influence on how the future european politicians are gonna work in regards to the citizens.
I know it will not help a lot, but it might help a little bit to learn politicians that they need to listen to the crowds and provide objective information or it will backfire someday.
Also am i happy the netherlands are not the only ones who voted no. If we were alone, we could indeed be in a bad position in europe. France however voted against, and if britain is going to do a referendum, it will certainly also be a sound no.
It is too bad the union is delayed by some years now, but they way it is happening, there might also be positive effects.
I could fill books with my oppinions about topics like this, but i think this is enough now for a civ forum
). I've never been to Colorado before, so I'm doing a lot of stuff in the evenings too. As if that weren't enough, I'm driving to Las Vegas this weekend, so I will probably not be available to play until after I get home on the 11th. If my my turn comes up substantially sooner than that feel free to skip me.
