An Idol but not the president?
Written by: | 7 Oct 2008
Americans like choices.
We seem to be unsatisfied with anything less than about 250 TV channels. A jaunt down the pain reliever aisle of any drug store is testament to our apparent need to choose even our cough syrups from a dizzying array of options. We are, sadly, a culture of people who now even choose our mates from a shopping list of online portraits and profiles.
We like to choose. And we do – about 100 times each day. Brown slacks or black? Gurley or Sheldon? Paper or plastic? Grande or Venti? We clammer to the Great Pepsi Challenge table at the mall. In fact, when we’re denied choices, we rise up and demand them. Fat cat airlines get deregulated. Phone service monopolies are toppled. McDonalds starts offering salads.
Every couple of years, however, in November, we are asked to make perhaps the most important choice of all; we’re asked to step up and choose a political candidate to represent us aptly and fairly in our most sacred foreign and domestic concerns.
Yet, in a good year, barely half of those who are eligible actually take the time to vote. Half.
Higher Voter Turnout
According to FairVote.com, the 2004 presidential election saw the highest voter turnout since 1968, at a whopping 61 percent. Only six out of every ten eligible voters in America bothered to vote and the news media celebrated our impressive participation.
Sixty-one percent is, admittedly, better than the average turnout, which the United States Elections Project says fluctuates between 49-52 percent in presidential elections and about 30 percent in midterm elections.
But even in a banner year, there are still 40 people out of every 100 who are old enough, able enough and eligible enough to vote, but who choose, instead, to say “whatever” and leave it to others.
How can this be? We love to vote. We vote people off remote islands and out of MTV beach houses.
What are people really voting for?
We vote for last comics and people who think they can dance. We vote for what color the next M&M should be and for which singer we think does the least painful version of a Whitney Houston song.
We vote for everything, it seems, except for the person we want to lead the richest nation in the free world.
In fact, 97.5 million votes were cast in the most recent American Idol finale, according to Portfolio magazine. That’s over 35 million more votes than were cast in the pivotal election between Gore and Bush in 2004. And remember, that was the best voter turnout America had seen in decades.
Sure, Idol voters are allowed multiple votes (up to 10) and they get to vote via cell phone. Is that what it’s going to take? Allowing preteens and the easily amused access to text voting? How about a free ring tone with a vote for Obama? Or a free download of the latest Christina Aguilera single with a vote for McCain?
Idol vote as valued as the democratic vote
According to a Fox News poll, 35 percent of the folks (idiots?) polled said their Idol vote was as important as their presidential vote. (Insert a stern look of disappointment and disdain here).
As a people, we seem to care more about pop culture than Presidents. More about cable TV than Congressmen. It is perplexing and more than a little pathetic.
Not taking a vested interest in the political process comes with many excuses. “A single vote doesn’t count.” “The popular vote should weigh more heavily than the Electoral College.” “Both of the candidates are losers.” “Voting lines are too long.”
All of these excuses may hold some truth. But the bottom line remains the same. You have to care enough to pierce your own laziness or indifference or egocentrism.
It shouldn’t take ridiculous initiatives, like the one in 2006, which attempted to use lottery money to bribe people to vote. It shouldn’t take rock stars and movie starlets running Get Out the Vote or Rock the Vote campaigns in an effort to sex up the political process. It shouldn’t have to be compulsory, like it is in Australia.
The importance of voting
The truth is, voting isn’t sexy. It won’t get you a million dollars. What it will give you, if you give it half a chance, is a sense of satisfaction – a sense of being part of something meaningful. At the very least, a sense of smugness for cancelling out one vote from the “other” party.
Even casting a vote for a lackluster candidate carries more conviction than apathy. On Nov. 4, when you walk out of the polling place with your “I Voted” sticker, or when you place your early ballot in the mailbox, you can walk tall and feel proud that you are an American citizen who values himself enough to be heard.
Everyone should vote for Obama!
I totally agree. People need to either vote or quit complaining about the results.
Obama is the kind of man we need to get us out of the mess George W. has gotten us into. It’s time to end the error.
On the other hand, a recent NPR feature reported people standing in line three or four hours to vote early. Another news story told of people who had recently relocated to Arizona too late to register in Arizona and still unable to vote in their previous state. Another news story told of people who had flown from India just to get back to this country in time to vote. Perhaps we should be asking how we can make it easier for people to vote. Oregon now has voting by mail. Imagine how much “voting” we would be doing on those reality show examples if it were as difficult as voting in a presidential election.
We at the Rough Writer are very pleased to see our hope realized. Record voter turnouts in states all over the country and a higher degree of involvement in the political process than we’ve seen in decades is most encouraging. Woo hoo!
Leave your response!
Advertisement for Guidance Helicopters
Pages
Sections
Websites of Interest