Life in Grand Forks, North Dakota... NOW reporting from Germantown, MD
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Election Day
Did you vote? I wonder how many North Dakotans exercised their civic duty today. I voted. There's no excuse for not voting, other than serious illness.
...or if you simply don't care! ;) I agree 40% of the time on what politicians say (no matter what party they're affiliated with) and that's being generous. I'm probably better off leaving someone else to vote for me, anyway, considering I know hardly a damn thing about ANY of the candidates running. Why vote when you have no idea what you're voting for? Makes sense to me...
Matthew -- You seem like a smart guy. I don't want to offend you but, you said, "I know hardly a damn thing about ANY of the candidates running. Why vote when you have no idea what you're voting for?"
In this day and age when every citizen of the United States can access a library or the Internet, NOT KNOWING ABOUT THE CANDIDATES is not an excuse.
Only 19.2 percent of 18 to 30-year-olds voted in 2002 (the last midterm). It was barely 25 percent in 2004, a presidential election.
At the University of South Dakota, where I've been tracking student/young adult voting for the last month or so... more young people have taken a greater interest this year. Did they go vote? I think they did, at least in numbers comparable to 2004, which is damn impressive. But, one quarter of the young adult population voting is pathetic.
Young people need to understand that before they know it, they will be the ones who are in leadership roles, they will be the ones with the house, 2 cars, 2.5 kids and the white picket fence. You can either have a hand now in how that life will be, or you can wait until it's too late.
It's extraordinarily selfish to say you do not have 1 hour to sit down and learn the candidates and the issues. That's all it takes. It might even take longer to actually vote. And what's sad... Americans would rather stand in line for hours at Walmart the day after Christmas, but to go through the "trouble" of voting... no way.
As a disenfranchised voter (by my own doing) I am offended.
Well, David... Just the fact that you say you are offended and the fact that you "applaud" weathergal, makes me feel very offended. I don't necessarily want to take up space here just to respond to you, but I feel I need to.
It's not 'just' the fact that I don't care, David, it's also because politics of any kind is just something I have never held an interested in. What the hell am I going to gain by attempting to learn about something when I don't even have an interest to learn about it in the first place?
Would 'you' put aside an hour of 'your' time to learn, say, the chemical processes involved in liquid jet-propulsion? I would assume you wouldn't... and because it serves no purpose to your interests. It's the same idea!
I will give you this little tid-bit, David. I did vote in the Presidential Election in 2004 (even had to register to do so, unlike you lazy N-Dakotan's), but only because I cared enough to NOT want "Captain Idiot" to stay in office. Which, obviously didn't end up mattering anyway. I plan on participating in 2008, but probably only if there are any candidates that I actually like, or especially if we are still occupying Iraq... That is one issue that I have severe reservations against.
The fact of the matter is, while I 'have' become slightly more interested in who is leading this country, I simply do not have an interest towards political debate and/or participating in re-elections for the Senate or the House.
On top of that, it's people like you that turn me off from voting... Why do you people always feel a need to remind everyone that voting is something we "have" to do. As a democracy, we have an option to vote or not, and as an "American" - I'm exercising that right!
Finally, I ask that you not judge me for who I am or what I represent - just because I choose not to vote.
3 comments:
...or if you simply don't care! ;) I agree 40% of the time on what politicians say (no matter what party they're affiliated with) and that's being generous. I'm probably better off leaving someone else to vote for me, anyway, considering I know hardly a damn thing about ANY of the candidates running. Why vote when you have no idea what you're voting for? Makes sense to me...
Matthew -- You seem like a smart guy. I don't want to offend you but, you said, "I know hardly a damn thing about ANY of the candidates running. Why vote when you have no idea what you're voting for?"
In this day and age when every citizen of the United States can access a library or the Internet, NOT KNOWING ABOUT THE CANDIDATES is not an excuse.
Only 19.2 percent of 18 to 30-year-olds voted in 2002 (the last midterm). It was barely 25 percent in 2004, a presidential election.
At the University of South Dakota, where I've been tracking student/young adult voting for the last month or so... more young people have taken a greater interest this year. Did they go vote? I think they did, at least in numbers comparable to 2004, which is damn impressive. But, one quarter of the young adult population voting is pathetic.
Young people need to understand that before they know it, they will be the ones who are in leadership roles, they will be the ones with the house, 2 cars, 2.5 kids and the white picket fence. You can either have a hand now in how that life will be, or you can wait until it's too late.
It's extraordinarily selfish to say you do not have 1 hour to sit down and learn the candidates and the issues. That's all it takes. It might even take longer to actually vote. And what's sad... Americans would rather stand in line for hours at Walmart the day after Christmas, but to go through the "trouble" of voting... no way.
As a disenfranchised voter (by my own doing) I am offended.
WeatherGal, I applaud you!
Well, David... Just the fact that you say you are offended and the fact that you "applaud" weathergal, makes me feel very offended. I don't necessarily want to take up space here just to respond to you, but I feel I need to.
It's not 'just' the fact that I don't care, David, it's also because politics of any kind is just something I have never held an interested in. What the hell am I going to gain by attempting to learn about something when I don't even have an interest to learn about it in the first place?
Would 'you' put aside an hour of 'your' time to learn, say, the chemical processes involved in liquid jet-propulsion? I would assume you wouldn't... and because it serves no purpose to your interests. It's the same idea!
I will give you this little tid-bit, David. I did vote in the Presidential Election in 2004 (even had to register to do so, unlike you lazy N-Dakotan's), but only because I cared enough to NOT want "Captain Idiot" to stay in office. Which, obviously didn't end up mattering anyway. I plan on participating in 2008, but probably only if there are any candidates that I actually like, or especially if we are still occupying Iraq... That is one issue that I have severe reservations against.
The fact of the matter is, while I 'have' become slightly more interested in who is leading this country, I simply do not have an interest towards political debate and/or participating in re-elections for the Senate or the House.
On top of that, it's people like you that turn me off from voting... Why do you people always feel a need to remind everyone that voting is something we "have" to do. As a democracy, we have an option to vote or not, and as an "American" - I'm exercising that right!
Finally, I ask that you not judge me for who I am or what I represent - just because I choose not to vote.
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