Sock the Vote

When I was a young college student in the months following the 2004 presidential election, I was assigned a research paper in which I had to tackle some recent issue from the aforementioned election. I chose voting, and proceeded to write an astoundingly brilliant piece (my teacher said so, not I...and she was a super-lib FemiNazi to boot) that articulates to a minor degree the problems I believe are inherent to our current democratic process.

Well, we are a week away from another election, and the same issues persist, and have worsened. Thus I feel it is appropriate to post here that essay from four years ago that is still painfully relevant today, if not more so. I have gone through and amended slightly so as to update some of the references and where I have done so I have denoted with brackets. Enjoy, and let fly with your own thoughts afterward:

SOCK THE VOTE by JOHN MILTON

The United States government was conceived generations ago in the British Empire, nurtured by the Enlightenment, and deposited upon foreign soil to raise itself through the fire and blood of war. The end result was a system completely new to the world. Born of England, a constitutional monarchy, came the Republic that was America. Over centuries it evolved through trial and error into the most stable of all governments known to man. One tenet of this hybrid democratic republic was, and remains the vote: the single most treasured of all democratic rights. Does one person out of millions count enough for individual votes to be significant? In today’s time that question frequently arises, and it deserves examination. The vote has changed as America herself has changed, and by today’s time everyone of the age eighteen and up has the right to vote, with few minor exceptions. However, everyone who can vote does not choose to, prompting innumerable campaigns mainly focused towards young people, women, and blacks. These campaigns, often led by stars of the screen or airwaves, encourage people to vote, but do not encourage voter education. The question logically arises at a time such as this: Should everyone, of age at eighteen, vote? Many think so, even so far as to propose emulating the Australian system of fining voters who do not vote. Voting, by the mere assumption that everyone should do it, has now been trivialized to a point almost as dire as the apathy of the voters themselves. The fact of the matter is that everyone should not vote, and moreover, greater restrictions need to be put in place to ensure such is the case.
The problem with such an argument arises when the time comes to write a research [article]. Few people with the same point of view have been published, which makes it outrageously difficult to find a documentable source for support. However, with diligence, and a will to endeavor to persevere, a few articles of interest can be found to shape a cogent statement. Most sources available concerning voting rights are either historical pieces regarding civil rights, or proponents of lowering the voting age to sixteen (youthrights.org). There are even a few pieces floating amidst the sea of opinion that propose mandatory voter registration. Age and voter registration are the easiest targets, because in a world run rampant with political correctness to even mention the words civil rights with the wrong inflection of voice can cause a storm. The general idea regarding voting in the United States is that voting itself is a freedom, and therefore a right. Those who support this idea make their point by stating that the political state of America is degrading from lack of participation and needs a boost. The “boost” proposed is a mandatory vote. The first steps have been taken towards this goal by canceling class in public high schools on elections day [Presidential candidate Obama himself recently urged everyone to stay home]. The fact that some high schools also serve as polling places has nothing to do with the cancellation of classes, for an equal number of private high schools also serve as polling places but do not cancel class [to include the private high school I attended]. In essence however, the vote is not a right; rather it is a privilege. Indeed it is true that voter participation is down historically, but one must consider the conditions surrounding the issue. Voters turn out in droves when there are serious issues at stake such as World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, energy crises, and so forth. From the Nixon presidency onward the world began to stabilize, and after the Reagan administration the United States was free from any visible enemy. Voters came less to the polls because they were less compelled by world events. Voter turn out in 2004 spiked again up from the previous election because there was the issue of the Iraq war. One could almost argue that voter participation is proportional to the importance of the election outcome.
The system of voting as it stands today is in need of change. The vote has been abused in recent elections by ill informed voters who have been goaded into thinking they have to vote. One infamous campaign in recent memory perpetrated by the rapper Sean Combs went so far as to say on television “Vote or Die!” Such propaganda smacks of totalitarianism, but Sean Combs more than likely is not familiar with the word [and that there are actually black people in Alaska, though maybe not crack heads]. The idea behind the campaign, and countless other like it, is to get people to the polls for any reason. A [2004] television ad had the actress Jennifer Aniston asking women “Would you want someone else to choose your clothes or your hair? No? Then why let someone else choose your president?” The extent to which Mrs. Aniston trivializes the presidency with such a statement is almost inconceivable. This is the manner in which the youth of America are being raised to regard voting.
Perhaps the problem with the youth [and I would ad ignorant mass majority] of America is that too many people other than themselves are making their decisions for them concerning voting [and day to day life, thanks Big Brother!]. The truth is, even if every person who turned eighteen in [2008] flocked to the polls on Election Day, it is mathematically improbable that their votes would make a difference. Voting by itself, just for the sake of voting, is futile. Even the actual votes of the Electors in the Electoral College do not matter; apparently they do not even vote until a month or so after the election. The only real way to make a vote count is to cause a victory. The [people] of America need to be aware of this reality and understand that if they do not want to vote, and they have no good reason to vote [Obama being black doesn’t count], they should not vote.
New campaigns encouraging political education need to be enacted. The problem is not that people are not voting. Rather, the problem is that too many people are voting without knowing the reason for which they are voting. Anecdotal case in point, a young man I know personally in the [2004] election went in to vote because he had just turned eighteen. On the ballot were five amendments with check boxes for “yes” or “no”. The young man voted no to all of the amendments despite the fact that one amendment proposed that widows retain the Stephens Day tax exception. When confronted on why he did this he answered “I don’t know. It doesn’t affect me so I don’t care.” The attitude the young man had is a prime example of why he should not have been voting in the first place. Voters need to know what they are voting for, why they are voting that way, or simply not vote at all. For this reason the voting age should be raised to at least twenty five. College age students are far too inexperienced in the world to be trusted with the fate of the nation. Though not true for all, eighteen to twenty-one year olds lack essential wisdom that in many cases can only be earned through years of independent living apart from the college campus. Raising the voting age would benefit the voting system far more than would lowering the voting age. Raising the voting age means condensing the number of people who vote; this thereby increases the power of the vote itself and bolsters each individual’s significance.
However, raising the voting age alone will not condense the voter base enough: still more measures need to be taken to counteract the flood of ignorance that pours into the polling places thanks to MTV and Hollywood. There need to be stricter voting restrictions: first and foremost being a mandatory literacy test. If an individual cannot read then he or she is less likely to be able to research candidates and issues, and thereby make an informed decision. Politicians realize that American’s are stupider than ever before, and they welcome this. Politicians know that an ignorant mind is easily influenced, hence smear campaigns and 527 television ads. The theory is that as long as one candidate looks bad, the other has a greater chance of getting the vote. Voters who can read, and do not easily believe everything they hear on television, are more likely to discern the truth and vote based on why they feel a candidate is qualified. The literacy test would be mandatory for all voters, regardless of age, sex, or race.
Such implementation of literacy test will never come to fruition, mostly due to the stigma attached to said tests by a sordid history. The problem with literacy test is that they were primarily used to foil Blacks and Indians at the polls after the passage of the 15th Amendment and the subsequent Snyder Act in 1924. The usage of literacy tests today would not be to combat minorities, but ignorance in general, for which Americans of all race and ethic background are guilty. To prove this point I would go so far as to propose permitting special Spanish ballots, as long as the Spanish-speaking individual could pass a test on basic knowledge of the American Government.
Of course, the argument can be made that plenty of ignorant people can still read. The idea, however, is not to turn away generally ignorant people, but politically ignorant. This could not be accomplished to one hundred percent satisfaction, for human beings are fallible, but a significant dent could be made. Many people would simply not vote because it would be too much work to take a test, stand in line, and actually use their minds. Voting is a practice exercised once every two years at the most, and the majority of Americans, in their infinite laziness, would not care enough to vote if there was a stricter filter to pass through.
In the end it is clear that dramatic changes in policy and perception regarding voting need to take place. The American people need to understand that they have the freedom to vote, but not the right. A screen must be erected to shift out the elements of society that would seek to make a mockery of the system, and thereby allow on the most qualified of persons into the voting booth.