Voting

Just because you have to be 18 to play Armchair Politics does not necessarily mean that people under the age of 18 should not be represented.

Rule #2- Vote!
People who do not vote do not have the right to play. Again, that does not mean that their views should not be represented, especially if they're elderly or ill, however, if you forfeit your right to vote through your own involvement in criminal activities, be those activities incarceration or immigration makes no difference, you can't vote, you can't play. You may, however, submit any solutions you may have to the proper elected officials and take credit for doing so. People who are too lazy to vote should not be represented. They don't care enough about themselves to show up. They don't care enough about their country to show up. They don't care enough about their community to show up. They don't have a right to complain! Some rights must be earned.

It is the philosophy of this blog that being a good citizen requires exercising your right to vote.
This right is a privilege for which the American Revolution was fought. This privilege has been taken for granted by far too many people for far too long and the current political problems in this country are a result.

As bitter as this pill may be to swallow, when complaining about the economy, the stimulus package, the bailouts, et al, keep in mind that the bulk of the blame for our situation belongs to us. We did this to ourselves. Think about it. What has voter turnout been for the past 50 years? This situation did not happen over night.

The first step to solving the problems in this country long term is getting rid of voter apathy.
Barack Obama made some strides in this department.

Candidates being responsible for getting out the vote is what reduces elections to popularity contests. A law should be passed that makes registering to vote complusive, like the draft. 18 year old boys still have to register for a draft we don't use, but they are not similarly compelled to register to vote and neither are 18 year old girls. Seems like it wouldn't take much money to fix this problem. While some people might still not be compelled to actually vote it would certainly give us a more accurate account of how many people are eligible to vote and don't. If 18 year old citizens of this country do not want to vote, then maybe the voting age should be changed to 21. It seems rather wasteful that men have died for a right we are too thoughtless to use. Shame on us!

This problem may well take the next four years to fix, but we should certainly take at least one step toward fixing it this year.


Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

This content may not be copied or reproduced in any way without the express written permission of the author. You are welcome to link to or bookmark this page, but please contact the author via e-Mail if you wish to reproduce this article in whole or in part.