Cathy Seipp, visiting at the VC, echos my position in an argument discussion I had a few days ago. Encouraging lazy and ignorant people to vote is not a good idea.
It's bad enough MTV's Rock-the-Vote campaign frantically urges 18-to-30-year-olds, no matter how ignorant, to get to the polls.I've always despised "Rock the Vote", and not merely because of its leftist political agenda. I'm mostly satisfied with our current system of universal suffrage, but one of the main reasons it works is that stupid, lazy people don't vote. Thank God.Look, voting is a privilege as well as a right and if you don't vote, you should be ashamed of yourself. But the reason you should be ashamed of yourself is that not voting is lazy and idiotic. Should the lazy idiot constituency be encouraged to influence society even more than it already does? ...
Many things in life are hard; voting is not one of them, and parents promising to vote the way their children want in return for finished homework sends a message about as useful as school principals who eat worms if a class improves its grades. In the eternal words of Marge on "The Simpsons," "One person can make a difference, but most of the time they probably shouldn't."
Don't forget, though, that laziness and ignorance are not leftist-only characteristics... and encouraging them to vote is going to bring out a fair share of right-wingers as well.
Aside from Rock the Vote, there are other organizations and campaigns that encourage people to get out and vote.. but not necessarily for one side or the other. They encourage people to vote, no matter which candidate, ideology, or political party they prefer.
Stupid, lazy people can be found on both sides of the fence in massive quantities. But MTV's demographic, as well as their significant slant on the views, issues and facts that they present, is more inclined to bring out the Leftist demographic.
Right-wing groups are sure to get plenty of their lot of stupid and lazy people out to vote as well.
Another way of looking at it is that selfish people don't vote, thank God. Voting after all involves some effort for which there is very little - essentially no - tangible return for any individual voter. Further, the benefits of voting can't be captured by any given voter. If I cast a wise - or unwise - vote, everyone benefits or doesn't. It's a real "tragedy of the commons" situation, which is good since it does create a marginal tendency to favor those people who have some disposition toward altruism and/or civic-mindedness.
Mark: Sure, but there are more lazy and ignorant leftists! :)
PSB: Hm, good point, I wonder which ideology that favors? Leftists are only generous with other people's stuff, after all.
There are more lazy and ignorant lefties than right-wingers?
Now why is it not surprising to see you say that. :)
What could be more studid and intellectually lazy than failing to see that Bush lies for corporate profit?
BK: Failing to think up a more plausible fake name than "Beem Kenilworth"?
i am 18 and think that your stereotypical comments are quite stupid. young people do not stay young forever. what better way to learn than to become politicaly active.