Tue 7 Nov 2006
Get Your Vote On
Posted by Erin under Daily Life
[8] Comments
Some stuff related to politics and voting.
The song Flag Day by the Housemartins (they are Brits and from the 80′s and jaded about politics, but who isn’t?).
The book All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. Better than either of the movies taken from it. So ok, the guy gets corrupted. But it’s still interesting.
The original movie The Manchurian Candidate. Ok, once again, nefarious communist forces are at work in the political process. But Angela Lansbury makes it all worth it.
It appears that my politically-themed offerings might actually deter people from participation in the political process. Of course, we can’t forget Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. That Jimmy Stewart is such a cutie. And in this one the idealists triumph.
Vote ye, vote ye! Vote thy conscience, one and all.
I’m proudly wearing my “I Voted Today” sticker as I read.
Forgot about the Housemartins… I found this tasty little review: “Like a box of chocolate truffles with BBs hidden in them, a Housemartins album offers deceivingly simple and tuneful pop songs that are designed to cause you some discomfort once you start chewing on them.”
Yay for voters. Nice review! I was singing along in the car awhile back and it took me two choruses to realize they were calling me a sheep.
Hey — I considered a blog post on all the reasons I did not vote, but I decided I couldn’t take the raft of poop that would come flinging at my head. Let’s just say — I have my reasons.
Also! I hear the Arizona initiative whereby the random person would be selected to receive One MILLION dollars! failed. How the heck did this happen?
Hey Kate, you should check out my brother’s paean to not voting in the comment section of “give me my million dollars.”
I know, a million dollars seems like a no-brainer to me too. I guess the few people who still vote thought it would besmirch the electoral process. Think of the riff-raff!
It’s my guess that voter fraud is not as rife as news reports make it sound. However, I think we’d see a *lot* more incidents if voters were viewing the process as a lottery. And, if it takes a million dollars to get you to vote, you probably shouldn’t be voting. (“you”=”nonspecific you”, not “you”=”Erin”)
I know, I’m no fun.
Hi Karen– voter fraud point taken. And obviously, your perspective is in the majority. But concerning: “if it takes a million dollars… you probably shouldn’t be voting.” Isn’t that saying the same thing as “keep the riff-raff out”? Are some people more worthy to vote than others? Is voting something that everyone should do, like paying taxes, or is it something that only the most knowledgable people should do? I myself hate voting, and the prospect of a million bucks makes the medicine a little less bitter.
I know, I’m kind of torn about the whole riff-raff thing, too. I truly believe that everyone should have the right to vote — even felons. However, a horde of uninformed/uncaring voters — ones just concerned about increasing their million dollar chances — would likely throw more big question marks into the legitimacy of the election process. I think it’s important to be an informed, educated voter, and as it is, we don’t have enough of those. It appears to me that most people are getting their info from ads on TV.
Now, what would have been ideal, IMO, is if the whole million dollar reward thing would have happened, unannounced. Like the lottery commission (or whatever it’s called) had the authority to randomly reward a voter, w/o any voter *knowing* there was a voter-reward program happening.
Karen, I agree with you on the ideal situation thing. I also think it would be good if we just voted for a few people, rather than actual laws. For most of those ballot measures, there is just no way I could become educated enough to make a good choice, without making it a full-time job. and hey, that’s why I pay taxes, so it can be other people’s full time job. I want to have a say in picking good people, but that’s it. In fact, I often pick people whose thinking process and decision-making style I trust, rather than on whether I agree with them on all their political positions.