As the countdown to the presidential election draws to within a month, we are being inundated with pleas to “rock” our vote – whatever that means. If this year is like the 2000 election, however, only 42 percent of people aged 18 to 24 will cast a ballot.
Every single voting public service announcement you will see between now and Nov. 2 is worthwhile. The voting apathy pervading the young people of America today is a dangerous and unnecessary problem. Forget all of the usual reasons for exercising your vote. Yes, it is important that American soldiers have sacrificed their lives in order to create and protect the ideals we take for granted. The most important reason, however, is that if young people don’t vote, politicians feel no accountability toward them.
Young people are harming their own interests by not voting. I think the main reason young people don’t vote is that they don’t feel their interests are being served by politicians. Is this starting to sound a bit circular? That’s because it is.
Those of us in college especially have some valid concerns. Most of us have some kind of federally-subsidized financial aid. We all have to live with the consequences of long-term environmental pollution. We will all have to deal with the total lack of Social Security by the time we reach retirement age. Politicians today are creating problems for which they will never have to present solutions. We need to demand consideration when these decisions are being made.
This constant effort of the citizens to demand that their representatives be accountable to them is one of the central tenets of any democracy. It is built into the Bill of Rights. This is a wonderful ideal with which we are presented. It also requires us to be working constantly. Politics are now relegated to the status of a hobby that can be pursued if we feel that it is not too boring.
We as citizens feel frustrated with politicians in general. We feel they are unreliable. We feel like voting is the choice of the lesser evil. We have a right to be suspicious of career politicians. They’re usually dirty. You can’t make a career in public office without accepting contributions from lobbyists and other corporate special interest groups. The idea of a career politician would have been met with chagrin by the founding fathers. Individual, regular citizens are meant to be able to run for and serve in local offices such as city council, school board and mayor for a couple of years and return to their previous career.
Therefore, voting is the smallest commitment we make when we join together in a democracy. For a government to be truly “of the people, by the people and for the people,” citizens from all walks of life should be constantly participating in it. That means writing letters to your representatives. That means attending town hall meetings and voicing individual concerns. That means demanding that the government present itself in an honest manner to all people. That means holding the news media accountable for presenting information. It’s the only way to make our government truly representative of the needs facing all Americans.
It may sound sappy, but the solution to our generation’s future problems does lie in our power to vote. Demand more from the people in office now, or you will be facing the consequences later. It is as simple as that.
