So, You Want to Make a Difference?

Have you noticed that almost no one votes anymore? That's not entirely true. 52.9% of registered voters voted in the 2002 midterm election. But, significantly fewer voted this year and it could very well get worse before it gets better.

So, why don't people vote? You probably don't have to go far to get some 10 different answers to that question. Just a simple poll in any workplace or bar yields answers ranging from "my vote doesn't matter" to "none of the candidates are worth voting for" to "I don't like politics" to, and this is one of my favorites, "the corporations have already bought the votes, they don't care what I think."

Back on 11/8 the Associated Press, CNN and four other networks organized over 1000 polltakers all around the country to conduct an exit poll durring the midterm elections. It's interesting to note that the top issue people said was important to them was ethics and corruption in politics. Dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq came in third place behind economics. With the way campaigns are run these days does this suprise anyone? When was the last time you heard someone speak to the issues rather than telling you all of the evil things about their opponent? When was the last time a politian spoke to the issues and then kept their word?

Campaign finance reform is probably a good place to start fixing the issues. I for one would prefer to live in a country where the average people have a say in the government. I know that's what the system says we have but when polititians are having fundraising dinners that cost $20,000 per couple to get in who do you think are making the decisions?? That's almost half my yearly salary, clearly they don't want to hear what I have to say. But where we may lack in dollars we can make up for in numbers.

Rather than continue to harp on the way things seem to be going and making it feel like your vote doesn't matter what I want to get across here is that it does. Every single vote matters. People have died over the right to vote and now we all take it for granted! To quote a recent movie "People should not be afraid of their governments...governments should be afraid of their people" The middle class comprises some 60% of this country, lets get out there and make our voices heard. Stop assuming our decisions are being made for us and let the polititians know we DO care what they do and we won't stand for them sending our jobs overseas and our children off to war!!

On that note I'll let everyone get on with their weekends. I hope its a great one for you all!

Some interesting information on some of these topics can be found at:
http://www.campaignfinancesite.org
http://www.vanishingvoter.org/
http://spa.american.edu/ccps/pages.php?ID=23
http://elections.gmu.edu/Voter_Turnout_2006.htm
http://hnn.us/articles/1104.html