Election Protest

I saw a video on YouTube of a small protest march by college students in Red Hook, NY. The march was a protest over the results of the 2004 presidential election. In the video you see a few students (about 12 according to the person posting the video) and an overwhelming number of state police officers. There is a lot of yelling and screaming. It appears the police overreacted. But what surprised or rather disappointed me was the tone of the comments to the video. The general tone was one of ridicule and derision toward the students. At about the same time I was perusing profiles at on online chat site and noticed the most common response to the question of political stance was basically politics and politicians suck and I don’t care - thus the basis for my current rant.
I understand people not being interested in politics. National politicians are indeed corrupt to one degree or another. After all they have to make so many concessions to please all the different factions. They have to collect money from the big donors because it takes lots of money to run a campaign. And then of course they’ll owe those big donors and so it goes. So in the end the voter is left feeling frustrated and helpless. Better to just ignore the whole irritating mess.
All of this I understand completely. Life is short after all and full of stresses and irritation, who wants more. So for those who opt out of the system and decide to let others make their choices I say okay – I understand. But what bothers me are the careless voters, the ones who do vote but put little thought or effort into it, who don’t understand the issues in any meaningful way. For example, in the 2000 presidential election I heard some people say they liked George Bush because they felt like they could sit down and have a beer with him. This is important why? Along those same lines I saw Obama on the Tonight Show way back and Leno was asking him about his education. Obama was reluctant to discuss it. When Leno pressed him on the issue and pointed out that Obama had a JD from Harvard Obama explained his reluctance to discuss his education was because, “nobody likes a smarty pants”. Obama got that right. Americans apparently don’t like presidents who sound smart. And I realize a politician could be smart and capable and yet not at first blush come across that way - the folksy politician. But do candidates have to shy away from sounding smart?
Other examples of silly reasons: I heard someone say once they voted for JFK because he was handsome. Or the candidate is from my home state so I know who he is. Or he’s the same age as me or he has the same star sign or drives the same kind of car or has the same hair style. Good grief. These people are obviously at the extreme end of what I’m talking about and yet there are all too many of them. But there are also too many voters who do vote for issues but have such a limited understanding of what those issues entail. After all, the modern world is very complex. Understanding economic theory or world trade is no small feat. Who’s got the time or the inclination to become knowledgeable on complex issues? And since most issues are so complex… Hey all I’m suggesting is that people, if they are going to vote, put some effort into knowing where the candidates really stand on the issues they care about. Don’t sit back and make lazy assumptions - make an effort please.



Protest March