The United States of America is founded upon the principles of democracy. It is founded upon the idea that people should and do have a say in what their government does and how the government acts. We are supposed to vote and elect representatives who act for us as they make their political career in Washington D.C. amidst those who represented us years before. It’s an important process, no doubt, but my question is why then is it so hard to vote?
On paper, the democratic idea of voting sounds poetic and moving. Every American has a voice and uses it by voting for other Americans who can sing for them. In a sense, we are electing candidates to do things for us (isn’t that America is all about?). This idea fits in well with the American lifestyle that seems centered on making tasks and jobs as quick and easy as possible. But here’s the problem: voting isn’t easy.
Voter turnout has been steadily declining since the 1960s. But wait, isn’t voting the direct way to demonstrate America’s democratic foundation? It’s supposed to be, but the irony of it all is that Americans aren’t voting. This isn’t to say that all of a sudden we don’t want our voices to be heard and represented. What is obvious to me is that we’re used to having things quick and easy and voting has become a bothersome task.
Consider this: presidential election campaigns have started years before the voting date, making them seem never-ending, and giving people the impression that they must follow from start to finish. Elections are on a Tuesday, when people are working and going to school; many people, especially the college-age generation, have to vote via absentee. For a country that likes the easy life, we sure make voting hard.
Presidential candidates start their campaigns up to two years in advance. It seems that as soon as a president is elected, he starts campaigning for the next election. I say give it a rest. The non-stop campaigning and the non-stop coverage of the campaigns sends the message that we need to be tuned into our TVs and radios to make sure we know who’s running, what they stand for, and that gosh darn it we better vote. It’s as if the American people are supposed to be in a non-stop state of voting. It’s exhausting and it’s pushing voters away.
Let’s say you live through the endless campaigning and still have the desire to vote… I hope you’ve cleared your schedule for the Tuesday on which elections are held. Tuesday. Why are elections held on a weekday? Doesn’t the government know that the majority of Americans are working all day trying to contribute to society and the economy? Yet, the cornerstone of democracy (voting) takes place, regardless. This means an American voter has to find a way to work around his/her schedule to make sure he/she can vote, or vote after work, when it’s late and they are tired and just want to go home, or not vote at all. Would it be too much of a problem to move election days to the weekend? Or give voters two days to vote? If the government wants us to vote, they need to set election day at a time when it’s manageable and non-interfering to vote.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dan(Miller)
Disenfranchisement is a bad thing.
I guess they didn't know about residency requirements.Dan(Miller)
2 - moon
I do not agree with the basic premise of this article.
The US of A was founded on the twin pillars of genocide against Native Americans and the enslavement of African-origin people.
The Double Fs (Founding Fathers, in popular parlance) set up a system where only white, financially well-off MALES could vote.
Women--God forbid.
People of Other Colors--ditto.
Folks without property--low roller whites (later referred to as White Trash) and other whites in indentured servitude could not vote.
That is NOT a democracy, Sarah.
Not even here on Blogcritics.
3 - Sarah Gray
yeah, I actually completely agree with you moon. the whole genocide against the native americans...ugh, don't even get me started. same with slavery.
I just LOVE how our country is founded upon the principles of contradiction and hypocrisy. Huffah.
4 - Sarah Gray
and the premise of this article isn't necessarily talking about how democractic America is... it's more about the fact that our main way to be a "democracy" is voting, yet it's so hard to vote.
5 - moon
Well, then, Sarah, I suggest that your writing dynamited your point.
I didn't read past the first sentence--which I saw as both incorrect and jingoistic.
Maybe you should have started your piece along the lines, of:
Since voting is the key act in any democracy--even a simulated democracy--why is it so hard to vote in the US of A--a country said to have been founded on democratic principles?
I might have actually read your piece.
Now, I do admit, that I am not exactly a typical reader--I read so many thousands of words every day that I am very choosy about which ones they are.
6 - Sarah Gray
fair enough, fair enough.
your suggestion of what my first sentence should be is what I was getting at, so perhaps I could have worded it better. regardless, I wasn't trying to say America is a true democracy.
and since you aren't a typical reader, thanks for stopping by... even if you weren't satisfied with this article.
7 - Arch Conservative
yeah, I actually completely agree with you moon. the whole genocide against the native americans...ugh, don't even get me started. same with slavery.
SO what?
That was 200 years or so ago.
Is every American citizen supposed to walk around feeling guilty about the natives?
Do I as a white person owe something to black people because my ancestors MAY have kept their's as slaves 150-200 years ago?
There's nothing wrong with acknowledging our nation's black marks and injustices so that we may learn from them but we shouldn't be bringing them up every five seconds and suggesting that they are somehow the most pressing influence on what's going on in our nation today. They're not!
You guys must belong to the Michelle Obama School of History.
8 - moon
Arch,
You effing betcha.
Not only do I expect you to walk around feeling guilty--I expect that you (plural) set up a truth commission like is done in other countries where genocide occurred and:
1. Assign the responsibility
2. Accept it and
3. Redress the damages.
And I expect you to do the same in regard to slavery.
Until then, Gringolandia is just a pile of steaming hypocrisy.
I am done for today. I have salsas to make.
9 - moon
Actually, I am NOT quite done.
Sarah,
The first rule of journalism is the LEAD GOES FIRST. That's why it's called a lead.
Then folks can make an informed decision about reading your piece.
Cleverness and cuteness and trying to mix things up do not make the cut.
10 - Arch Conservative
1. Assign the responsibility (the responsibility lies with a bunch of people that have been dead for over 150 years not any American citizens living today)
2. Accept it and ( I accept that it happened, it was a horrible thing, and now it's time to live in the present and deal with what's going on now."
3. Redress the damages. (The damages? The damges were done to another group of people that have been dead for over 150 years so it's impossible to "redress the damages"
Ditto for slavery
If you insist on living in the past I guess each an ever citizen in every European nation owes some big bucks to the nations of Russia, England and the USA for saving them from Hitler huh?
If I have to give some money to some black guy in America as slave reparations then some guy named Lars in Norway owes me because my grandafther served in WW2 and saved his grandfather from a horrible fate 60 years ago.
PAY UP LARS!
See how incredibly f-ing stupid that sounds? [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
11 - Clavos
And do not abuse my posting name, either--that is also verboten here.
Which one, li'l gal?
Marthe Raymond?
Moonraven?
Cuervodeluna?
moon?
You've used ALL of them as your "porting name." Any of them is valid on this site.
12 - Lisa Solod Warren
Re Voting.
13 - Arch Conservative
I didn't know using your real name constituted a violation of BC policies Moonraven.
I am in no way responsible for the acts that are being discussed.
I doubt it.
14 - Dave Nalle
The US is a republic, not a democracy. In fact, the citizens are not supposed to be able to vote for president at all. The state legislatures are supposed to pick the electors who then pick the president with ZERO direct involvement of the public.
Citizens are allowed to vote because of a wave of populism which began in the 1820s and resulted in state laws which linked the constitutional authority of the legislatures to the popular vote. Those laws could easily be rescinded and we could return to a more equitable and less easily manipulated system where all of this partisan bullshit was eliminated.
Dave
15 - Jordan Richardson
A few thoughts:
Arch:
That was 200 years or so ago.
Give or take...
Moon-whatever:
Cleverness and cuteness and trying to mix things up do not make the cut.
Cleverness and cuteness >>>>>> bitterness and bitchiness.
Dave:
The US is a republic, not a democracy.
Yep.
That is all.
16 - Jordan Richardson
Moon,
I believe PERSONAL ATACKS are not allowed here.
...moments later...
If you were here I would do to you what I am going to do in five minutes to the tomates.
Any reason why someone should take your admonition seriously? Especially given your history around here?
Also,
Your unwillingness (singularly or collectively) to accept what you did and redress it and your gleeful gloating over not effing having to do so is why I hold all Gringos in contempt and do not live in Gringolandia.
I'm wondering, do you consider children guilty of the sins of their parents? I have trouble accepting the whole collective responsibility argument, mainly because it assigns guilt to those who are not guilty under any standards. People can't admit to what they haven't done, they can't apologize for wrongs they didn't commit, and they can't offer amends for something someone else did generations ago.
There IS a sense of responsibility here, but ascribing it to every "gringo" is simply wrong and exposes the bitterness that you've obviously decided to make a big part of your life. It's a shame really, as you're probably better at making salsa and hammering tomatoes. Or so you say.
17 - bliffle
Nobody else reads Archie: don't encourage him M.
18 - Cindy D
ES&S Touch-Screen Votes Now Flipping in TX Too!
The latest reports today of ES&S vote-flipping come from Palo Pinto County, TX, where two voters --- one of them an alternate election judge and office manager of the Palo Pinto County Democratic Headquarters --- saw straight-ticket Democratic votes flipped to straight-ticket Republican votes. Two times for the first person, and three times for the alternate election judge!
Great video footage at VideoTheVote.org
Stealing America Documentary
19 - moon
Bliffle,
He has never needed any encouragement.
To the other Enfants du Paradis (look it up, anti-intellectuals): So long as I am not posting under more than one moniker--which I am not, not being Dave Nalle (The Voice of the People)--I expect that no matter how cosy you are with the Powers that Be that you respect my posting name, which is moon.
Anything else is a violation of Blogcritics rules.
Also, referring to me by the name Marthe Raymond is taking liberties which are only permitted to the poster Ruvy. The rest of you were either party to the personal attacks which I received under gthat name in 2006 OR to the subsequent invasion of my privacy by Franco and Clavos (both Nalle dopplegangers)--or else you are folks with whom I have no history of interaction and therefore have no need or justification whatsoever to violate my privacy.
Jordan: I do velieve in collective guilt, and I see no reason why you should add to that collective guilt by making abusive comments against my person, either as a Native American or as a person who exercises her life choices based on HER beliefs, interests, needs, wants, whims and ideals--not on what fascist Gringos tell her to do.
You have some friggin' nerve.
20 - Lisa Solod Warren
Hey! Both Cindy and I posted incredible links to voting problems to which no one responded. At least read them. Voting may be a real issue here. Can we be sure every vote will be counted? I worry.......... a lot.
21 - Jordan Richardson
Moon, please point me to the abusive comments I made regarding your person. Also, I'm not an American. I don't live in "Gringolandia" or whatever the hell you call it.
You have some friggin' nerve.
And?
22 - Cindy D
Why did/do vote switching anomalies result in Democrat votes switching to Repubican candidates
That Stealing America documetary link details the vote switching that was reported in 2004.
23 - moon
This is abusive, misogynist and it remains so independently of whether you are a Gringo or not.
"Moon-whatever:
Cleverness and cuteness and trying to mix things up do not make the cut.
Cleverness and cuteness >>>>>> bitterness and bitchiness."
If I had meant to write bitterness and bitchiness to the OP, I would have done so. I am extremely precise when selecting my words.
Condescension from folks of your ilk also doesn't cut it in journalism--or anyplace else.
Condescend to somebody who gives a flying fart about what YOU think.
24 - moon
A pointed question well worth expanding, Cindy, as it has NOT happened the other way--where votes for Republicans were transformed into votes for Democrats.
The same thing was an issue in the 2006 presidential election here in Mexico--except it was the case that paper ballots for Lopez Obrador were counted as votes for Calderon. And in a highly significant number of cases, too.
25 - Jordan Richardson
Moon, this is the comments section. It's about as far from journalism as you get. Indeed, it's a fucking nuthouse. Just look around.
I absolutely was not condescending. I was truthful. I would much rather read the rantings of someone who wanted to be cute and clever than someone who allowed bitterness and bitchiness to guide his or her daily existence. But that's just me. What YOU would have written to the "OP" wasn't my concern.
Now you said my comments were abusive, but you do little to elaborate on that. I'm sure people that actually ARE abused are thrilled at your cavalier attitude towards abuse, as somebody making a comment about your general attitude (which is not something you deny, by the way) is considered abusive. Moreover, you claim it was misogynist?
What. The. Fuck?
What I said has nothing, NOTHING, to do with women or hatred of women. Indeed, I would argue that my wife would be very insulted by your inference at this point and time, but I fear you'd suggest she fall into a coma or "fake paralysis." Indeed, your words are often so filled to the brim with hatred and misguided self-pity that you become impossible to bear. You are a big part of why my posts in politics have become more sparing. You, and that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about...
But every so often, whether you're a man, a woman, a Gringo, or just a flat-out douchebag, it pays to fucking calm down.
Seriously.