"Get out and Vote" programs bad for country

Before I start I want to say that I think that different very intelligent people can reach differing opinions through logical means. I am fairly liberal but I can understand and respect intelligent conservatives. However, there is nothing I despise more then a person who holds strong political opinions for no clearer reason then fashion or expectations from peers. However it seems that this is how most people with political opinions are now a days, from all political sides. I despise the ignorant liberal as much, if not more then, then the ignorant conservative. At least a stupid conservative is easy for my liberal mind to deal with. A stupid liberal can insult my own beliefs just by agreeing with me and attempting to argue my beliefs with wrong information and poor logic.

I would also like to add that I am generalizing, a lot, in this post. When I say all apathetics do something, I mean that a vast majority of them do.

It has been common in the media to talk about widespread voter apathy the past few years. Perhaps it has been going on longer. I only really started paying attention to the news a few years ago. Voter Apathy has become an incredibly negative term. People use it to complain about candidates they feel are doing poorly in office. There is a belief that voting is the responsibility of every citizen. That to not vote is to be unpatriotic. This is all wrong. Voting is a right of every citizen. It is not mandatory, but every citizen has the choice to participate if he or she so chooses. In the same way, every citizen has the right to not vote. If someone doesn't care about the politics of the country, they should not feel obligated to vote anyway. In fact, it is better for the apathetic to stay home and not vote then to go to the polls and vote for someone based on some rough, uninformed approximation of the candidates. To pester and beg the apathetic to vote would be dangerous because their lack of opinion/resolve on political issues makes them susceptible to manipulation. An apathetic voter could easily become a second vote for someone else.

This is, of course, precisely the idea of the Get out and Vote programs. In attempts to gain votes for their respective candidate both political parties have started numerous voter registration drives. They preach the voter responsibility and patriotism gospel and pester people outside in public spaces and door to door at people's homes. The truth is most of the apathetic citizens are not "unpatriotic." The majority of them understand that they are lucky to live in the United States and feel a certain amount of pride to live in this country. When you question their patriotism, they are generally going to want to show that they do care about this country, and when it is pounded, over and over again into their head, most people are going to believe there is some truth to the unpatriotic act of not voting. So people are registering to vote, no, nany people are registering to vote, no, record numbers of people are registering to vote. Who are the apathetic going to support? They don't follow political events unless they can't avoid it. The only firmly established opinions can come from two sources: peers, and media. Now the various media certainly have their biases but, with a few exceptions, most mass media is fairly unbiased in regards to political candidates. The influence comes from friends and family, the same people who likely helped in convincing the apathetic in the importance of voting. These are the people who are going to guide the political opnions of the uninterested. Whether intentionally or not, these opinion guiders have just skewed the election one vote to their side. Now imagine the vast numbers of people who have been convinced to register, despite not caring about politics. Imagine hundreds of thousands of people all just siding with their buddies. It gets worse, because it's contagious. A newly converted apathetic will convert his or her apathetic friends the same way. So know those original influencers are gaining even more votes. What it does is create a situation in which the person elected might not be the choice for the majority of intelligent voters. Instead it was decided by a minority influencing a majority of indifferent voters.

And even if this system of uneducated voters evens out, the fact still remains that the country is being guided be massive groups of people that don't know or care about what effect politics have on their lives. This election the damage has been done. Both political parties have gone out on a massive run to get the apathetic to vote, and in order to win them over, both sides are encouraging absentee ballots, even if you aren't absent. The reason they say they do this is because it supposedly saves the political parties money because they won't call or send you mail demanding before the election night. This isn't really completely honest. Instead they call and send you mail a month before the election and try to change your mind on the absentee ballot. The real idea is to make it more convenient for the apathetic to vote. Both parties belief they have the most to gain out of convincing the uncareing to care because both parties believe they have the most logical belief. The idea is to get them to agree to vote, make it easy for them, and then attempt to sway them through the media, and personal communication lines. They are thought of as nothing more then puppets who will fill in the right circle come election time.

What can be done about this? not much. The damage this election is done. I can tell those around me what I believe, I can beg those who didn't care but are now voting, to not vote, but all these will accomplish little. It's a problem that I don't know how to fix, and by this point, the manipulators from both parties believe they have won.

-Brandon