Voting is a strange thing in modern America. So called "voter apathy" has destroyed the franchise' effectiveness at restricting government to its only justification, acting at the will of the people. "Voter apathy" is not even an accurate phrase - the apathetic ones don't vote at all, they are not "voters," they are absentees, withdrawers, perhaps just lazy and using the massive non participation reported in the media as their lofty excuse. So why vote when all the candidates appear to be scoundrels? When the "system" seems rigged and your vote appears to "make no difference"? Because these are self serving lies for the lazy! The media have a vested interest in encouraging this so called apathy! If big money is to control politics one of its strategies is to discourage citizens from participating in the most fundamental way we have invented of keeping government at the will of the people. In a nutshell, if you really think the candidates are all inappropriate, or even if you are just not informed well enough to pick among them - you should register, go and vote, and just not pick anyone if you can't decide! A blank ballot is not "voter apathy!" It sends a clear message. Imagine if in this upcoming presidential election, the fifty percent or so of the eligible voters who skip the process all went to the polls and did not select a candidate (or picked some obscure candidate). The results would be interesting. Imagine... the two major candidates splitting fifty percent of the vote nearly equally - in other words getting 22-24% each - and the less well known or popular candidates getting a percent or two - the major parties would both scramble like crazy to figure out a way to get the huge not-so-silent majority to vote for them. To do this they would have to address the causes and issues that matter to the people, instead of working as hard as they can to keep all but the party faithful and a few "undecideds" away from the polls. 8/27/00 
© Huw Powell
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