October 15, 2004
Get informed!
That should go without saying, but just about every election year around this time I hear some commentator, while decrying the apathy among the electorate, declare something to the effect of “I don’t care how you vote, but it’s important that you vote.”
What a terrible message!
In an ideal republic, the public is well-informed, participates, and votes. But not voting is far better than voting in ignorance. I've heard people who should know better admit to voting without sufficient knowledge of the candidates or issues. One fact which I fear is not made sufficiently clear at the voting booth or on the ballots is:
Abstaining from voting in a particular race DOES NOT void one's votes for other races.
I now am on the permanent absentee roles, and wouldn't have it any other way. No longer am I surprised on election day by a race, resolution, or initiative that didn't receive the publicity it deserved before the election. It's still tough to get enough information to be confident about choices for every judgeship, so I'll still occasionally abstain on a case by case basis, if I don't have sufficient information to make an informed decision. But it galls me that I'm abstaining while hundreds who have been cajoled into voting as their civic duty are guessing who to vote for on the flimsiest information, and feeling proud of themselves for doing so.
More galling still is a press, both print and television which devotes more time to the philanderings of celebrities than to informing the public about the many local choices which will confront us on election day. We deserve better.
Posted by Walker Willingham at October 15, 2004 05:21 PMWhere’s the freedom, where’s the representation?
I have learned all that is spoken are lies … when spoken by politicians.
Does the Constitution actually apply? Answer: no.
I complained about cops, the courts, and tried to have a judge fired for bias, THEN I went to prison on trumped up charges.
My story: (here)
Try putting “Steven G. Erickson” into a yahoo search engine
Oooookay. Now getting back to the actual subject of this thread for a moment:
Walker, you’re absolutely right about this. However, I gotta tell you that I’m surprised to see this posted in the blue column. Seems to me that Democrats have specialized in rounding up people who normally don’t vote — illegals, nursing home residents, clueless 18 year olds, etc., and convincing them to mark the box in their column.
That even includes a few areas that are actually outside of Chicago.
Posted by: NOTOTH at October 16, 2004 03:30 PMHaha Nototh,
That’s only because Republicans keep rounding up the brown nosed sycophants who think they might get a check in the mail for voting Republican, as well as those guys in Nevada and Florida that keep throwing out Democrat registrations.
Seriously, Watchblog encourages me to believe there are those that think about politics, because my conversations about town with potential voters scares the hell out of me.
Posted by: Greg at October 17, 2004 12:33 AMI barely watch TV anymore, Walker. If you want news, rather than news entertainment in 30-second bites, read a newspaper.
I just got my absentee ballot for California. There are about 20 different initiatives on it this year. I swear, the referendum system we use needs to go. It’s totally being abused by every person or group with the money to put together an ad campaign and hire signature collectors.
When I first started voting, I came to the conclusion that you can’t go wrong just voting NO on every single initiative. After spending hours looking into this years initiatives, I still stand by that assessment.
