I am sick and tired of people encouraging me to vote.
Yes, I’m talking to you, P. Daddy Puff Diddy
Whatever-It-Is-You-Call-Yourself and your stupid “Vote or
Die” slogan.
And you too, MySpace, with your “Declare Yourself”
campaign, encouraging your users to register online and then
clutter up their already obnoxious profile pages with dinky banners
declaring they know how to fill out forms on the Internet.
I’m bitter, but I can’t help it. Each year come
November, as I’m flipping from Comedy Central to Cartoon
Network, I happen to catch a commercial sponsored by some
politically apathetic organization such as MTV that insists it will
be the end of the known world if my generation doesn’t go to
the polls.
What gets me so riled up? I’m afraid one day these
campaigns might work.
I’m terrified that the kind of people who actually take
advice from a rapper with an identity crisis and networks who make
money by filming teenagers buying Prada bags will try to influence
the political process.
You think the government is screwed up now?
I don’t even want to fathom the possibilities.
“Getting the youth vote out” is such common rhetoric
that it has become a cliche. Our demographic has come under intense
focus and scrutiny for our lack of civic engagement because we
generally have the lowest voter turnout. And by low, I mean about
20 percentage points behind the age bracket with the highest
turnout, which is those 65 and over, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau Web site.
In a recent Daily Bruin article (News, “Students can
re-register, vote absentee,” Oct. 13), UCLA student Patricia
Go stated that she did not have time to worry about voting. And who
can blame her?
Registering is hard. Researching the issues is too much like
homework. And actually getting yourself to the polls when you have
midterms to study for? Unthinkable.
Which is exactly why Go and others who share her feelings,
should not ““ and should not be encouraged to ““
vote.
If someone is not yet mature enough to think that the elected
officials and propositions that influence him are worth taking a
break from studying organic chemistry, then he is obviously unable
to act as a competent voter.
Citizens who are informed and concerned will take the time to
find out and follow the correct procedures in order to vote,
regardless of what kind of banners their MySpace friends have.
And those of us who do take the time to read the news really do
not appreciate the mainstream media’s attempt to dilute our
carefully, well-thought out votes with the whims of some hung-over
college students.
There are some personal disadvantages to encouraging the habits
of my politically apathetic peers.
Issues that directly concern us, such as education, are decided
by people whose last memories of school involve sitting by Laura
Ingalls Wilder in a one-room schoolhouse with a chalkboard.
But why shouldn’t old people decide how much debt college
students incur? They put the time and effort into being active
citizens.
That control is their reward for all of those grueling
afternoons spent watching C-SPAN.
This imbalance of power could lead to more extreme
consequences.
One day the older demographics might decide to raise the age
requirement for voting, forcing us to be lazy and uninformed
instead of just giving us the option.
Or maybe they’ll elect a leader who decides to institute a
draft because of ““ and I know this will be difficult to
imagine ““ a shortage of volunteers for the military.
I’m not going to worry too much ““ mostly because as
a woman I can’t be drafted.
A final word of encouragement to my non-voting readers: It may
be difficult to resist the temptation to vote one day in the
future.
Some places, such as Arizona, are even proposing to institute
lotteries into the voting process, according to the Arizona
Republic.
So if you vote, you may someday enter yourself into a contest to
win a million dollars.
But look past the greed and the feeling of wanting to be heard,
and remember that abstract notion of civic duty you learned in your
high school government class.
It’s your civic duty, as a poorly informed citizen, to
allow the rest of us to control your life.
We’re counting on you ““ to not be counted.
If Strickland’s election slogan is cooler than Diddy
Cheese Puff’s, tell her so at kstrickland@media.ucla.edu.
Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.