when you live in a country where the majority dont know who the veep is you can tell you have serious problems.
A combination of the two, plus easily manipulated by the media.
I feel this is the side effect of the "Just go and vote" campaigns.
yes, i can attest. i didn't vote and was harassed for it at my university, but my reasoning is just that i don't have much faith in really either political party, don't find that i am well enough informed on the issues, among other things. and i watched as a large population of students at my university did vote, and couldn't even properly explain what exactly they were voting for or what the issues are.
[editline]9th November 2014[/editline]
i really think there should be increase in voting age, or some sort of voter competency test, even though such a test would inevitably be compared to the racist and discriminatory literacy tests of the post civil war era and thus deemed likewise as racist and discriminatory
[QUOTE=OrkO;46448800]yes, i can attest. i didn't vote and was harassed for it at my university, but my reasoning is just that i don't have much faith in really either political party, don't find that i am well enough informed on the issues, among other things. and i watched as a large population of students at my university did vote, and couldn't even properly explain what exactly they were voting for or what the issues are.
[editline]9th November 2014[/editline]
i really think there should be increase in voting age, or some sort of voter competency test, even though such a test would inevitably be compared to the racist and discriminatory literacy tests of the post civil war era and thus deemed likewise as racist and discriminatory[/QUOTE]
Can't you cast a blank vote in the US?
[QUOTE=Lalelalala;46448846]Can't you cast a blank vote in the US?[/QUOTE]
i don't think so, but you can write in candidates as a similar form of protest (people often write in mickey mouse and adolf hitler)
[QUOTE=Lalelalala;46448846]Can't you cast a blank vote in the US?[/QUOTE]
Yes, and unfortunately a lot of people don't realize that. So they just put down whatever.
[editline]9th November 2014[/editline]
Let me clarify. If you do leave a blank ballot, it usually isn't counted in the election results, however there is nothing stopping you. That's why people write in candidates, so it shows as an "other" vote in the polls, possibly leading to split elections where no candidate has a majority. Not all positions have write-in options either.
Research and vote for who you want, not too hard. People are just lazy, follow the bandwagon. If you have an open mind and actually visit candidate's websites or read up on them, you can get get a glimpse on what they are like. It's not a crime to cross party lines sometimes. I think it's stupid to get stuck on one side and vote for some doucher just because they are red or blue.
[QUOTE=Glitchman;46448938]Research and vote for who you want, not too hard. People are just lazy, follow the bandwagon. If you have an open mind and actually visit candidate's websites or read up on them, you can get get a glimpse on what they are like. It's not a crime to cross party lines sometimes. I think it's stupid to get stuck on one side and vote for some doucher just because they are red or blue.[/QUOTE]
It is sometimes difficult to find where candidates really stand on certain issues, specifically with state and local elections, where the issues are not so clear cut or are pretty dry (i.e. state budget, pensions, etc)
[QUOTE=Splash Attack;46448958]It is sometimes difficult to find where candidates really stand on certain issues, specifically with state and local elections, where the issues are not so clear cut or are pretty dry (i.e. state budget, pensions, etc)[/QUOTE]
You can usually ask them if they are local candidates, they have lots of events beforehand.
There IS some voter responsibility
I mean a candidate here actually came to my house and was like "what do you think about issue X or Y"
I mean, it's true, if you're not involved with politics you won't know the candidates as well.
Past local, I think there might actually be websites out there that provide an almost spreadsheet-like layout of the issues and where each candidate stands on them
[QUOTE=Glitchman;46448980]Past local, I think there might actually be websites out there that provide an almost spreadsheet-like layout of the issues and where each candidate stands on them[/QUOTE]
If you can find a website like that, please let me know. I tried finding that for the governor race and ended up reading a political wiki that was not all too clear and only covered a few issues.
What about the third kind of person.
People who don't give a shit and vote just to vote?
Or the 4th kind, the folks who don't even care to vote? :v:
If everyone who wasnt happy with the current situation handed in a blank vote and showed how many they were, we might have some actual change.
I have to agree, it's both. Voters are dumbinformed.
There was a poll some time back about voter opinions on various issues.
Most said they were against welfare, but also most said they like programs that helped the poor and elderly. Aka, welfare.
Most said they were against increased government spending, but most said they liked increased funds for education, infrastructure, Medicare programs, etc, aka [I]government spending[/I].
[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;46449210]If everyone who wasnt happy with the current situation handed in a blank vote and showed how many they were, we might have some actual change.[/QUOTE]
If blank votes are counted, maybe.
In France blank votes aren't even counted and go towards abstention rates, which is as idiotic as it is undemocratic.
Voting well is kind of a fool's errand. Politicians will always try to lie or misrepresent themselves, while the voters have to see through the lies and make the best decision.
Problem 1) The voters have jobs and families and other things to focus on, while for the politicians, getting elected is top priority.
Problem 2) Your vote only makes a tiny difference on who wins, plus, the direct consequences of candidate A winning as opposed to candidate B in a voter's life are minimal. On the politician's perspective, if they get elected, their life is made.
This system of incentives makes it so that ONE guy might be a good voter, but any given population will be pretty terrible at it.
tl;dr voting is imbalanced, pls buff
A lot of it comes down to education, media and the campaigns themselves.
Education because civics is effectively dead in American public schools. People don't know how many justices sit on the Supreme Court, they don't know how long a Senators term is, they don't know their own rights, and they have no idea how their local, state or federal governments work. Most of them probably don't even know who the hell their state representative is. For me personally I only had 1 civics class in 12 years of primary education, and it was 40 minutes long and actually not it's own class but a 2 week section cut out of the social studies curriculum in a 180 day school year. Compared to roughly a month and change on just the Holocaust in that same 12 years.
The news media is the second tumor in the body politic, it's often intentionally biased, and very rarely geared towards being informative. Instead it opts to be flashy, shallow and filled with editorials, subjective opinions and false dichotomies. Also because news in America is provided by private companies the chief motivation is about selling their product, ad time, so finding the most salacious, sensationalist stories to get eyes on screens will take precedent for a private network as opposed to one that is publicly held. And beyond news, media in a general sense is completely devoid of substance. Big Bang Theory is probably the most educational mainstream show on television, at least compared to Discovery Channels Noble Prize nominated series, Punkin Chunkin.
Lastly campaigns, because they're fucked. When someone can anonymously donate money in unlimited sums to tax exempt organizations that can run ads in any market, never have to disclose who their donors are and can pass through huge loopholes that allow them to effectively campaign in tandem with a candidate, it's fucked. Also because no one pays attention to local and state elections this monied shit is amplified even more, which is bad because most of the important legislation that affects people is drafted and passed in state houses.
tl;dr: American politics is a mobius strip made out of shit and money. And no one knows anything because no one is taught anything.
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