Get out and vote … but with care
Whether it’s a Democrat or Republican campaign worker running a “Get Out the Vote” campaign or somebody on MTV loudly screaming “Vote,” simply encouraging people to vote seems … meaningless.
I am not insulting their efforts; I think they are very important for increasing the legitimacy of our elections.
I do feel that more emphasis, however, should be placed on encouraging youth to learn where candidates stand and how they can get such information with ease.
The reasons behind going the extra mile of asking people to educate themselves are important for philosophical and practical reasons.
For starters, learning about the issues can help prevent general stupidity that could lead to poor decision-making.
A voter could make shallow decisions based on a candidate’s name or attractiveness.
While blindly voting along party lines isn’t horrible, candidates may not properly represent their party’s platform. A Republican may strongly support the pro-choice movement or a Democrat may support President Bush’s tax policies.
If enough people make stupid decisions on the ballot, this could get a candidate elected based on such stupidity.
The candidate may have won fair and square, but only because enough voters were idiots.
This is problematic if candidates do things that are “surprising” to such voters but were clearly foreshadowed in their public campaign efforts.
Pouting and protesting cannot erase such ignorance easily.
Education can defeat ignorance before the vote is made. It can also narrow down surprises to things like new issues and major scandals.
Another key reason behind encouraging education is it may spark discussion.
This could lead to more informed voters and a better society.
Discussion can be a form of information and persuasion that could lead to a deeper understanding of what candidates represent.
More importantly, multiple people can gain from this, even if there’s a wide mix of opinions. As long as somebody really idiotic and loud doesn’t ruin the discussion, it can be rewarding for all that participate.
This could also help “spread” knowledge quickly.
One voter may or may not make a difference, but such discussions may potentially impact tens or hundreds of people it they were impacted by a discussion and also spread the word.
Finally, encouraging youth to obtain information and helping point out ways to accomplish this can also build a greater groundwork for a more functional society in the future.
Society should help foster that development for the sake of all humankind; the decisions of a few can affect all, given the often close outcome of elections today.
It also may help cure apathy by getting more people involved earlier.
It is harder to change attitudes as one ages, so encouraging earlier activity may help combat apathy.
For all these reasons, it is more important to emphasize self-education about the issue than to simply encourage the vote.
Unfortunately, most operations to encourage voting are run by either biased sources (major parties) or complete idiots (people on MTV).
Still, it would be great if such sources took a risk and put more effort in the education, instead of producing mindless votes without reason.
There supposedly is a future beyond November 2006, and we ought to prepare for it by eliminating ignorance.
As former President John F. Kennedy said, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum