Paradise the Arkitech
Why are people so FANatic about their meaningless local Football, Baseball and Basketball teams but will NOT VOTE for the team that controls their Jobs, Money, Housing, Education, Air, Water, Food, Transportation, Taxes, Health care, LIVES?
-Paradise Gray of X-Clan-
Words of wisdom from Paradise as we head into the home stretch of the midterm elections… Now there will be some who will cry out that voting doesn’t matter when it really does especially on local levels..We just had a serious police brutality incident in Boston.. what’s the DA gonna do about that? We have judges who sit on the bench and rule on everything from divorce to parking tickets to you smoking weed. That same judge gets to rule on all those issues or set guidelines for a jury to follow. You don’t think thats important to vote on?
You don’t like the Democrats or Republicans?… There are all sorts of third Party candidates running, why not vote for them and make a showing versus complaining that the two main parties are corrupt?
Below are several voting guides for you to look through.. One of them even allows you to make your own and share it with friends via Facebook and twitter.. Take a look at them. get informed and make a difference.
http://www.smartvoter.org/ Most comprehensive.. has all the races local, state and nationwide
http://www.votesmart.org/voteeasy/ pretty similar.. doesn’t go as deep into local city and town races…This ballot matches candidates to the issues like the death penalty or mandatory prison sentences you feel passionate about
http://theballot.org/ This ballot guide allows you to upload and put out your own..It’s designed for young adults.. pretty dope.
It seems to people me that people do JUST that: Vote for their favorite teams. Dems are loyal to Dems, Repubs are loyal to Repubs, and a large number of the black community is loyal to Barack Obama; who arguably can be considered the Fritz Pollard of the political game.
Unfortunately the problem is that people are more followers of people than they are of principle. Therefore, Fritz Pollard could have been it horrible quarterback. The fact of the matter was that he was the first black quarterback, therefore, it was more important that he win than score, because his fans felt that he was representing something more than the game.
I think the reason that many people feel that voting doesn’t matter is because they also feel that it doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, political corruption proves this fact to a large degree. In fact, just look at where the U.S. stands today after the record voter turnout in the 2008 election. Instead, we’re getting what we’ve always gotten. Excuses. And that is probably because we keep doing what we’ve always done.
Tungz
I think the reason that many people feel that voting doesn’t matter is because they also feel that it doesn’t work.
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A lot of people may have that view when it comes to MAJOR elections (and to a certain extent they have had plenty of justification to feel that way)…however the process on the LOCAL level works a lot different. Here it pays to participate in the one place where we still can effect change…Voting for judges, district attorneys, city council, etc. have real implications on our communties and our quality of life. Instead of stepping away from the political/voting process we should engage it from another angle. We certainly could work to change our response to the situation, instead of just throwing our hands up and saying oh well, why bother.
Peace
I am not suggesting that people should step away from the voting process.
What I am saying is that I understand the desire to do so, and it goes for the Federal level just as much as the Local level. Politics is politics, and corruption and collusion are the modes of operation.
However, what I am suggesting is “accountability”. Voting means absolutely nothing without the voters holding the pundits accountable, and it is here where we fail more so than voting.
When Bush messed up and made excuses for it we should of held him and his administration accountable by engaging in things such as Civil Disobedience. Maybe, just maybe, we would be in this mess. When Obama didn’t keep his promises and made excuses for it, we should have held him responsible. Then maybe, just maybe, the 700-billion dollar bailout when have made it to the hands of the other 99% of the nation instead of the 1%, and the economy would be revitalized (2/3 of the economy is hinged upon consumer spending)
People came out in record numbers for the ’08 Election; many of them – young and old – voting for their first time. But do we feel any safer? Do we feel more secure? Do we feel more empowered? The answer is “no”; and again, the applies to the Local level just as much as the Federal level.
People know how to vote, but they don’t know how to hold their pundits accountable. When our politicians fall short we accept and make excuses for them when we love them, and we ignore their excuses when we don’t. Bad responses on both fronts.
In short, what I am saying is that we should be more so followers of principle than followers of people.
But as long as we do the latter, then people will continue to be disappointed by the voting.
Tungz
Davey D,
You are right, Politics IS local. For some reason, people don’t get that. Folks feel like voting does not matter and fail to see how politics directly influence their everyday lives. In short, people feel like their vote and their participation in the process does NOT make a difference. Blogs like yours can help people see that active engagement in the civic life in America can make a difference.
-Teofilo Colon Jr
The same reason people are fanatic about complaining instead of actually assessing problems and building things that truly mediate or solve them. People simply like to be spectators and prefer to talk , instead of taking a pro active “hands on” approach to problems. People will watch sports and “talk shit” about certain players or teams, but never enter the ring themselves.
Those who vote are people that feel they have a stake in what happens. Voting is skewed toward the professional class.If you want people to vote then first give them a truly convincing reason to give a shit. If you can’t do that then the failure is on you. The best way would be to go out and find a bunch of people who refuse to vote and then use them as your personal guinea pigs and see how far you can get. The more stubborn the better… and the more you will learn.
That’s the code of conduct for these matters in the 21st century. The rest is just more of the same.
interesting blog. Thanks for pointing this out.