To vote or not to vote
Two things about voting I have issue with (or, at least, two that I’m going to write about today). First, that greater voter turn out is a noble goal that should be an end we strive for. Second, that greater voter turn out will help get Democratic candidates elected. Neither premise I agree with.
I do not believe that our founding fathers wanted every American to vote (which is why, for instance, the people of this country were constitutionally denied the direct election of the president, and I am not referring to our current system, but if you would remember, the electors of the president were originally chosen by state legislators). However, I will not use that as a reason to support my argument (did you see what I just did there? Pretty clever, huh?) because I do not agree with all of the founding fathers’ intentions (examples: writing slavery into the Constitution, being racist against blacks and Indians in general, giving states as much authority as they had back then, etc). I believe most about what I want to say about the Founding Fathers should go into a separate post where I can go into more detail about their successes, failures, and flaws (The intro to America: The Book makes a few very good points). I just wanted to mention them in passing.
Now, to the voting. The running of a country is a very important job, and if that country is a global superpower with enough nukes to destroy the entire world (see End of the World) than that job is slightly more important. That’s not to say that electing the wrong guy is unduly costly. States, Countries, Empires, can usually survive even with phsyco-maniacs in place (Think Byzantine Empire, descendents of Justinian) and America, with all its wonderful checks and balances, can withstand quite a bit. But before I get distracted again, let me try to come to my point. Better not risk it, eh? The issues that this nation now faces are myriad and complicated, and while some political parties (*cough* republicans *cough*) would have you believe that any issue is simple enough to be expressed in a 10 second sound byte, that is simply not true (and also, it really ticks me off when Bush talks in that condescending voice and dumbing everything down with that classic “in other words…”, but that is neither here nor there and that is certainly not the main reason why I am against the guy). The truth is that most of the issues that are regularly discussed are not understood well enough by most Americans to make those decisions. This is of course, why we have a representative democracy in the first place. Not everyone has enough time to learn about all these issues, so we elect other people to. And this is a good system, I’m not saying it isn’t, it would be insane for us to expect everyone to know everything. That being said, it is important to realize the key point that you don’t understand the issues well enough. That is very important. Whenever the media is discussing an issue and trying to “educate” the public about it, trust me, they are not doing a very good job. For example, the economy. Unless you have an advanced degree in economics from a prestigious university, you don’t know the issue well enough. That doesn’t mean you’re not smart, very few people have advanced economics degrees. But don’t believe, or let the media convince you, that you understand the issue well enough.
However, you may be smart enough to select the guy who can understand the issue, and that’s where voting comes in. Don’t vote for a guy who made D’s in college (in other words, all two major candidates in the last election). Don’t vote if you don’t want to. This is key. Our system works when people who want to vote (because they feel strongly about an issue) vote and people who don’t care (and therefore didn’t bother to find out the issues) don’t vote. Two key concepts here. One, it is OK to not vote. Making everyone vote means that each vote means less, and more votes will be made for frivolous reasons. If you try to get everyone to vote, your going to have people voting based on hair color and beer choice (this is already done, but to a very very very small degree). The second concept is that, while I said your too dumb to understand the issues, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. If you want to vote, it wouldn’t kill you to find out a little something. The more you know about the issues, the better choice you can make, the important thing is to stay to facts. Don’t listen to “expert opinion” or at least don’t take it as truth. Being extremely cynical when it comes to what you hear about politics. Our founding fathers warned against the power of demagogues and those who with words would seek to win favor.
To vote or not to vote. I think our system (of voting) is fine the way it is. Don’t, I beg, DON”T bemoan a fifty percent turn out rate. Ask yourself if you truly want the other fifty percent voting. And let me stress I’m not doing the typical liberal elitist: “those ppl are 2 stupid 2 vote.” I’m saying leave them alone already. They’ve got jobs and a life, and if they don’t want to vote then they shouldn’t have to.
Now, to the second part, hopefully a lot short. There is some talk, or was, among either the media or the left or both that increased voter turnout tends to favor democrats. That is an interesting statement as, if one reads it carefully, it doesn’t make any sense. The first example of why this is not true is the 2004 election, where increased voter turnout led to a Bush victory. Why? Because of who that increase represented: evangelical Christians. I don’t think increasing voter turn out should be the goal a political party (although it does make for good PR). The goal of a political party should be to increase votes for their candidate. That is the purpose of a political party. Perhaps, democrats, if you would spend less time “Getting out the Vote” or “Rocking the Vote”, and more time “Campaigning” you might start to win some elections. Your starting to lose your base. Your not organized enough, but again, that is a discussion for another post.
So I think ill finish here. I’ll probably have to come back to this post to correct a few things to make sure my arguments aren’t misconstrued. Until next time…
I do not believe that our founding fathers wanted every American to vote (which is why, for instance, the people of this country were constitutionally denied the direct election of the president, and I am not referring to our current system, but if you would remember, the electors of the president were originally chosen by state legislators). However, I will not use that as a reason to support my argument (did you see what I just did there? Pretty clever, huh?) because I do not agree with all of the founding fathers’ intentions (examples: writing slavery into the Constitution, being racist against blacks and Indians in general, giving states as much authority as they had back then, etc). I believe most about what I want to say about the Founding Fathers should go into a separate post where I can go into more detail about their successes, failures, and flaws (The intro to America: The Book makes a few very good points). I just wanted to mention them in passing.
Now, to the voting. The running of a country is a very important job, and if that country is a global superpower with enough nukes to destroy the entire world (see End of the World) than that job is slightly more important. That’s not to say that electing the wrong guy is unduly costly. States, Countries, Empires, can usually survive even with phsyco-maniacs in place (Think Byzantine Empire, descendents of Justinian) and America, with all its wonderful checks and balances, can withstand quite a bit. But before I get distracted again, let me try to come to my point. Better not risk it, eh? The issues that this nation now faces are myriad and complicated, and while some political parties (*cough* republicans *cough*) would have you believe that any issue is simple enough to be expressed in a 10 second sound byte, that is simply not true (and also, it really ticks me off when Bush talks in that condescending voice and dumbing everything down with that classic “in other words…”, but that is neither here nor there and that is certainly not the main reason why I am against the guy). The truth is that most of the issues that are regularly discussed are not understood well enough by most Americans to make those decisions. This is of course, why we have a representative democracy in the first place. Not everyone has enough time to learn about all these issues, so we elect other people to. And this is a good system, I’m not saying it isn’t, it would be insane for us to expect everyone to know everything. That being said, it is important to realize the key point that you don’t understand the issues well enough. That is very important. Whenever the media is discussing an issue and trying to “educate” the public about it, trust me, they are not doing a very good job. For example, the economy. Unless you have an advanced degree in economics from a prestigious university, you don’t know the issue well enough. That doesn’t mean you’re not smart, very few people have advanced economics degrees. But don’t believe, or let the media convince you, that you understand the issue well enough.
However, you may be smart enough to select the guy who can understand the issue, and that’s where voting comes in. Don’t vote for a guy who made D’s in college (in other words, all two major candidates in the last election). Don’t vote if you don’t want to. This is key. Our system works when people who want to vote (because they feel strongly about an issue) vote and people who don’t care (and therefore didn’t bother to find out the issues) don’t vote. Two key concepts here. One, it is OK to not vote. Making everyone vote means that each vote means less, and more votes will be made for frivolous reasons. If you try to get everyone to vote, your going to have people voting based on hair color and beer choice (this is already done, but to a very very very small degree). The second concept is that, while I said your too dumb to understand the issues, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. If you want to vote, it wouldn’t kill you to find out a little something. The more you know about the issues, the better choice you can make, the important thing is to stay to facts. Don’t listen to “expert opinion” or at least don’t take it as truth. Being extremely cynical when it comes to what you hear about politics. Our founding fathers warned against the power of demagogues and those who with words would seek to win favor.
To vote or not to vote. I think our system (of voting) is fine the way it is. Don’t, I beg, DON”T bemoan a fifty percent turn out rate. Ask yourself if you truly want the other fifty percent voting. And let me stress I’m not doing the typical liberal elitist: “those ppl are 2 stupid 2 vote.” I’m saying leave them alone already. They’ve got jobs and a life, and if they don’t want to vote then they shouldn’t have to.
Now, to the second part, hopefully a lot short. There is some talk, or was, among either the media or the left or both that increased voter turnout tends to favor democrats. That is an interesting statement as, if one reads it carefully, it doesn’t make any sense. The first example of why this is not true is the 2004 election, where increased voter turnout led to a Bush victory. Why? Because of who that increase represented: evangelical Christians. I don’t think increasing voter turn out should be the goal a political party (although it does make for good PR). The goal of a political party should be to increase votes for their candidate. That is the purpose of a political party. Perhaps, democrats, if you would spend less time “Getting out the Vote” or “Rocking the Vote”, and more time “Campaigning” you might start to win some elections. Your starting to lose your base. Your not organized enough, but again, that is a discussion for another post.
So I think ill finish here. I’ll probably have to come back to this post to correct a few things to make sure my arguments aren’t misconstrued. Until next time…
posted by Placeholder at 9:39 PM
1 Comments:
I'm impressed. The founding fathers did want to do right by us, but they were also a product of their time. You should have heard Gore's speech to the Daughters of the American Revolution last night. He called Bush out!! Said they needed a special council. Sounded very Presidential...Will Hillary give him a run for his money???
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