Voterific

Well, I can safely say that I have heard many people telling other people to vote. There's a hidden message there I think. As a society we don't really turn out voters. It may be a problem with our system, it may be human nature. I don't know how to get (insert current population of the United States) to care about the issues. I agree that it is quite important to vote responsibly, but is a real democracy really that practical...?

I guess that someone else thought the same thing, because we don't have one. We have a representative democracy (that's not the real name, but it'll work). I guess the founding fathers realize that their progeny would be pretty inept when it came to political issues. Actually, come to think of it, even the average joe in 1776 didn't know what was going on politically.

This means that even if we did have one hundred percent of our population voting, a large percentage of the votes would be bunk because of the general ignorance of the people. Then add in the fact that we campaign...Whoah, now that can sure throw a monkey wrench in the gears of our nation.

My best guess is that campaigning would work if it were a simple matter of educating the public about the issues, or people running for office. But it's not. Mudslinging, money, and just general popularity contests are the soup du jour. It turns out that most people who listen to the campaign ads gain a false sense of political knowledge (especially if they only see the loudest person's campaign).

"I watched that thirty second spot and now I will vote with confidence that I am making a very difficult choice correctly."

Even people who talk it over with their friends generally only have part of the story...but that's much better than not knowing anything.

So we vote for the people who will actually make the decisions. Now this can work. We vote for the person who we feel will represent our personal and political beliefs most accurately, and then we can go about our jobs creating an economy and working society while we leave the policy making in the hands of someone else...who we trust...hopefully....unless we didn't vote...or we didn't know who to vote for.

So is it better to tell people not to vote if they don't know the issues, or should we just push for a mass voting and hope that people really think about the politics and people involved.

Well, obviously we want every single person to vote responsibly (you know, study it out and then make an informed decision). Whoa, that sounds surprisingly like the end of an alchohol commercial. Drink...er, I mean, Vote resposibly. Because if you think about it, someone who is voting blindly, or without thought could do a lot of damage to society. It's almost better for them not to vote. Luckily we do have political parties that stand, generally, for a single set of standards. That makes party votersa little better.

I mean if you tell someone to vote, they might do it. So lets tell people to vote responsibly. Because really, it is important. Especially when the people we vote for will make the decisions that affect our entire country.

And besides, the last episode in the second season of Lost was interesting and extremely tense. It wasn't mindblowing, but it did give us a lot more than the end of season 1. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. It just gets me thinking a little. That's all I'm saying.