Americans Disenfranchisement

Reading through something like an editorial, an indictment really, on America's youth today. What the breadth of the letter says is that the current generation (that I am sometimes saddened to be a part of) is disinclined to politics. Duh. And oh yeah, that this is a bad thing.

But why? On both counts really. We as a nation do not vote in the massive numbers that say France or other Europeans do. Its fact. We barely turn out 40% for Congressional elections which determine the fate of national policy on all manner of issues for at least the next two years. These policies and the debates that spark up around them are capable of and often do affect millions (billions?) of lives here in America and around the world. But we instead cast votes for American Idol. Why? Because we feel like those votes matter. They meant something and determined something. And they produced results, tangible or otherwise that we could live by.

Its not that politics don't matter. In fact they are infinitely more important than some doofus from Alabama singing so he can get a record deal. No, its really coming down to two things:

1) We don't care because we don't feel we have real options, no choice = no vote. This is a stupid argument, but it bears some real weight on a national level (not for local matters though).

2) We don't care because we haven't been educated enough to understand politics and the premise of the great debate that they invite us to. Our country seems to depend on the obsequious masses instead of the inquistive ones. And our press does a good job of not being terribly inquisitive enough when it matters and too inquisitive on matters that entertain us. Everyone is trying to break the next Watergate or the next Katrina. It doesn't happen everyday. Sorry CNN, ask real questions until you get real answers instead of soundbytes. And show the debate. We might care if our media wasn't a recording.

The solution. Well its not too terribly difficult for intelligent people to simply start looking around and find parties with real positions on a few key issues. This is the nature of European politics (and perhaps the reason there is more involvement in voting over there). Most meaningful parties crystallize around a few central core matters and have vague stances on others. In a highly diverse country such as this, I believe its better ruled by the unruly mob struggling for coalitions than a mandate supplied by 50.1% of the population, or less in some cases. The problem will be kick-starting generations of people who have been educated that politics is a dirty, nasty business with dirty, distrustful people in it. Some of them are. Maybe most. Who's fault is that? Wait.. we the people. Oh yeah. That's in one of those dusty old parchments in DC somewhere. We didn't care enough to punish corruption through our votes. (we should do so by execution, its really a treasonable offence, but that's another matter). We didn't care enough to learn and read the reasoned debates and seek real facts to support them. We instead seek to be spoonfed, as we were as children in school, and to feel victorious by picking the "right answer", the one that wins, instead of voting reasonably and with good conscience. We have only ourselves to blame. I seek to correct this problem. People must become involved, or at least aware. And I will try harder to be more annoying until they do.