First of all, a shout out to the Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Associated Press for this one.
An article in the Sun-Sentinel last week highlighted a disappointing trend in American politics: nobody votes. As the article points out, residents in an unincorporated community just outside Tamarac, Florida, were faced with an annexation referendum, but apparently nobody there feels any sort of civic duty, and the outcome was 0 for, and 0 against. One voter (out of the 68 registered in the neighborhood) could have decided for all 200 residents whether their community would become part of the city of Tamarac. In all, $2500 were spent in keeping the precinct open for twelve hours, and now the city is considering whether to attempt a mail-in election instead.
Countless American soldiers have fought - and died - in the name of our democratic republic. And if you could, I would tell you to ask any of the old school women suffragists or even the Civil Rights Era leaders - the right to vote is a hard won privilege, and not one to be regarded lightly. It is especially not a right to be disregarded at all.
Beyond the fight for the ballot in the US, though, the fight against autocracy and tyranny has taken a huge toll across the globe, as well. Iraqis line up for hours to stain their fingers with a purple dye, showing they've voted, for instance, and the Great War was even fought to "make the world safe for democracy." Take into consideration the developments in China over the last twenty years, beginning with the student protests in 1989 (although one could easily include movements before then), as well as the recent atrocities in Tibet. It's clear. The allure of a vote is far too tempting for victims of tyranny, and quite rightly so. However, as soon as the vote is won, it becomes old hat. For those Floridians, and for every other citizen of the world's democracies who decides not to participate, I say this: you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
And what are the solutions to this problem? The answers are elusive. It's a terrible paradox, then, that enacting legislation or some rule of law that makes voting required is antithetical to democracy. After all, how could a system be free and independent if its most basic and inherent institution were compulsory? Furthermore, if this were the case, the logical outcomes would be two-fold. First of all, the number of uninformed voters would increase exponentially, and secondly, many more votes would simply be bought by the powers that be. But what we have now is the option to vote, not the right, and apparently not the responsibility, to do so.
Perhaps our democratic foundations were flawed, and I hope no one will label me a heretic for saying so. But for anyone who has studied American government in the slightest, it's a well-known (and embarrassingly well-founded) truth that our Founders and Framers had little or no faith in the common citizen's ability to govern him- or herself. Hence, they established a republican government, leaving decisions in the hands of elected representatives. The greatest degree of involvement for the citizenry, for the most part, has thus been reduced to electing representatives, save for the occasional referendum.
But does the republican system perpetuate low voter turnout? Is it because the real decision-making power does not lie with the public that voters feel they can make no difference? I for one feel this is definitely the case when the only choices we have in the way of political candidates are stuffed shirts and talking heads, who happen to be fighting mostly for reelection. Of course, there is also the assumption that one vote cannot make a difference; however, this is clearly not true, as shown by the apathetic residents outside of Tamarac, Florida. However, when the thought that a single vote will not make a difference discourages a substantial portion of the voters, the fewer resulting votes are worth far more individually.
Whatever the cause for our apathy, shame on us. Who are we to fight a war in foreign lands, espousing democracy, when we apparently feel no affinity for it at home?
