Right, just got in from serving as an election officer for the local elections in my county in Northern Virginia. The actual results I don’t care about– the contests were for town offices, and I don’t live in a town– but the turnout was bloody disgraceful. Not ten percent of the registered voters in that precinct bothered to vote, and the polls were open for eleven hours. People, you get the governments you deserve.
How does this relate to our mission in Iraq? Besides the obvious comparisons between the self-satisfied Northern Virginians on the one hand and the shot-at, bombed-out and put-upon Iraqis, there is more. One of the things that makes a civil society function is the presence of voluntary associations, and acts of civic participation, such as squeaky-clean election officers who can be absolutely relied on to conduct free and fair contests. Those institutions serve us well, and they take up the slack in places where government cannot or will not act. If we can install that sense of civic-mindedness in the Iraqis, we will have gone far toward winning the fight.
Oh, and here’s one more… let us all hope and pray that a free and functioning Iraq will one day have progressed so far toward prosperity and stability that they can afford to have ten percent voter turnouts. But I’m not sure that’s something to shoot for. SHAME ON US FOR PROVIDING A BAD EXAMPLE.
I agree it’s disgraceful. The most recent town election where I live drew 17.63% of registered voters. I am also an appointed election official (warden – precinct 2) and when preparing for an election I always make sure I bring books and/or magazines. I know that over the course of the day, there will be plenty of opportunities to catch up on all my reading. It stuns me the number of people who won’t register or are registered and can’t be bothered to show up. I can’t make up my mind who bothers me more, the lazy, apathetic ones or the ones who show up and know not one thing about a candidate or issue and basically flip a coin on who/what to vote for!
End rant.
“One of the things that makes a civil society function is the presence of voluntary associations.”
Um…I suppose the draft era Army was a voluntary association, too, in your mind.
More broadly, the fetization of voting continues to annoy me. A decision to vote should be like any other – if benefits outweight costs, do it. Otherwise, don’t. The only real, concrete benefits are making a personal difference in an outcome. Multiply that by how important the outcome is. The chances of effecting an outcome are negligible in local elections, pretty much absolute zero in bigger constituencies. And in America government matters less to our lives than in the vast majority of other nations.
Iraqis should vote more, because their are fewer of them, their government is vastly more important to their personal wellbeing, and they’re hopelessly backward and innumerate, so they don’t recognize the futility of their gesture notwithstanding the first two factors.
Now, it’s nice that you and many others have some interior fantasyland where voting is a sacred duty detached from it’s (total lack of) real world consequences. Good for you. But for me, it’s no more relevant than a neighbor’s aggravating pretentious preaching about how I should trash my car and ride a bike for the environment. Both of you can keep your aesthetic preferences to yourself, thanks, and I’ll happily put my saved half hour on the second Tuesday of November to a more productive use, like trimming my toenails.
I semi-agree with Dylan. I heard George Will say in a radio interview (20 or so years ago-) that low turnout here was indicative of the lack of impact politics has on our daily lives. And that’s a good thing- Folks in the Weimar Republic voted like crazy. Because it was life or death for them…
Note however that the last couple of US elections have seen greater turnout. People ARE taking elections more seriously as well they should given the choice between cut-and-run and stay-the-course.
Do we engage in the world or not? Do we want to be more like Europe or less?
We’re gonna’ find out at as we vote.
I agree with you sir. Americans do not take their right to vote as seriously as they shoud.
Am sitting here recalling reading about something years ago, that Hitler was elected not by a majority of the population vote, nor by any kind of a majority liking him at the time, no, he got elected simply because not very many people took German elections seriously enough to bother to vote — but the brownshirts did.
.
You guys are all wet: you’re getting a quality electorate — only the savvy and the motivated are voting.
Voting at these levels is EXACTLY what the founding fathers engineered their society for.
Forget about INPUTS: think about results.
High… really high voter involvement is ALWAYS associated with highly stressed societies. Iraq would be a perfect example but hardly alone.
Normally EVERY liberated society has fantastic voter participation. Then when things get dialed in the voters start to stay at home: they’re happy the way things are going.
Extremely low voter turnout equals an extremely satisfied electorate. It’s concerned/ pissed off citizens who rush to the polls.
Count your blessings.
No one is being forced to stay at home.
Generally, the stay at homes are pure voter noise: totally unknowledgeable about the players and the issues.
You… and most… don’t even recognize super success when you are looking straight at it.
Sorry blert – I have watched the voters in my precinct have problems bubbling in the circles, uncap markers, and attempt to insert completely blank ballots in to the machine (which is their right and we allow it once we ascertain that is their intention, most times it’s not). Many don’t know who is on the ballot until they walk in the door. They are all *motivated* but not all are *savvy*.
Bill – bringing up any society with compulsory voting is comparing apples and oranges. You missed the point of the discussion. We are not saying we want someone to take measures to increase voter turnout. We are lamenting voter apathy. I liken it to someone who laments the food selection at a potluck dinner when they showed up empty handed. My uncles refer to such citizens as *reapers*. Pretty self explanatory.
Dylan – stay out of my interior fantasyland, lol.
I think blert has a point, there’s a low turn out because people are for the most part satisfied/content/happy/whatever with their lives.
It is the highly stressed societies that vote in big numbers.
There is another issue that the Major and Maggie didn’t bring up. The pointlessness of voting in some places, because the local gerrymandering, political machines, etc…
Just try voting Republican in Philadelphia county.
Eric – I don’t buy the *pointless* arguement. Is there anyplace bluer than Massachusetts? I have been registered as a Republican since Goldwater. I have missed two local elections, period. (One was the for MilBloggers Conference – the pub crawl was worth it.)
I’ve often wondered what the turnout here would be if we had to face the possibility of encountering suicide bombers on the way to the polls. The Iraqis deserve enormous credit for braving so many hurdles, and then proudly displaying their purple fingers.
We unfortunately live in a society where we take evertyhing for granted. Our liberty and freedom, the right to vote. Considering what Iraqis have to go through to vote, it should be a reminder of how far we have come as a nation. Lest we forget these things and let us be thankful for our troops who are bringing freedom to Iraq!