Politics and ignorance

This is one of my favourite sites.

I believe in voting. I go to vote every chance I get, city/county/state/national ballots. I believe in making educated choices; I do research on the candidates and the issues before filling in the happy little ballot circles. I'm on a first-name basis with my representative's secretaries, because I will correspond with them to get clarification or better definition of the representative's point of view.

It never fails to surprise me how many people vote purely by party, or by even less justifiable reasons, and have little to no clue what they're voting on or who they're voting for. That's a high percentage of the people who show up. Legions of the disenchanted apathetic don't even bother to do that much.

I don't think we will see a serious change in voting pattern or voter attendance until the voters become better educated. That can be partly achieved by social awareness - people talking about the issues. It would be better served if educational facilities like public schools would have a better educational platform for political science.

I think the internet has been, and continues to be, a powerful force for change. It's made information more readily accessible. It gives more options for news sources than mainstream television or print media. Readers are able to see both sides of the issues, as well as a vast wealth of public opinion for either side.

The motto thirty years ago was 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' - and hey, that's pretty much exactly what happened.

We need a better motto to live up to.