This Week:
BHitman
Topic: The truth in politics
The truth in politics
The truth is, you don’t care about
politics.
When I say you, I mean the collective
18-30 age bracket most of the readers at this site fall into. And its
getting worse.
I did a study of voter turnout on
college campuses in my state this past year. Turnout for the 1996 election
(Clinton v Dole) was 42% in those precincts. In 2000 (Bush v Gore) the
turnout fell to 29%. This is nearly 30 points below the national average
which went up in 2000. So, when the rest of the nation decides they think it
is a good idea to go out and vote, why do we run the other way?
I heard all types of excuses during
my study. "I don’t know how to register", "I don’t know where to vote", and
"I didn’t know there was an election" were the most common answers to why we
young people don’t get out and vote. My analysis of that is pretty simple.
Those people are lazy.
I also heard quite a few people say
"Politicians don’t care about my issues" or "They don’t relate to me". Well,
why should they? You don’t vote. You don’t go out of your way to talk to
them, so why should they care about you?
We are just hurting ourselves here
people.
How many of you live in one of the
thirty-some states that increased their cigarette taxes this year? I don’t
smoke, so I don’t really care. I am sure some of you do.
Better yet, how many of you live in
California and don’t know when your power might go out next? Or if the
drought continues is there going to be enough water next week to take a
shower? Well, I hate to tell you this but your state is 28 BILLION dollars
is debt this year and the state does not have the money to fix those things.
I don’t care if you are a Republican or Democrat - If you aren’t working to
replace Gov. Grey Davis, then something is seriously wrong.
My point is, these things effect you.
They effect all of us in some way. Yet you sit idle and don’t do anything.
Today or tomorrow (depending on when
this get posted), many states around this great country will be holding
primary elections. Do yourself a favor and grab a newspaper, learn about the
races in your area, and VOTE. Many times, the primary races decide who wins
the seat in the fall. A very small number of races are determined in
November as most areas are either predominantly republican, democrat, or
something else. I would argue this election is more important then the one
in November, but I won’t take up any more of your time making that argument.
Hey, in the future I promise not to
be so preachy. I might actually try to incorporate some humor, but don’t get
your hopes up. And for all our foreign readers, this applies to you too. Get
involved in your own damn countries. And please try to do a better job than
Hov, he serves his country and look how Canada has turned out.
Take care and please vote.
Love, peace, and happiness to all,
B |
