When I was last with you, dear readers, I ended with a jab at one of the most important issues plaguing our political process today: voter apathy. In today's atmosphere of division and polarization, it seems crazy that some of our peers simply don't care enough to make it to the polls on Election Day. The sad fact is that Americans have been pampered into lethargy by a culture that tells us we can change an unpleasant reality simply by changing the channel.
"Vote early, vote often" was the philosophy professed by notorious gangster Al Capone, echoing (albeit illegally) the notion that if you want something done in government, it is your vote (votes, in Capone's case) that can make it happen. Sadly, although this quotation is known to almost every American, the message is recognized by all too few. For some reason, statistics show us that even presidential elections are barely able to top the 50 percent voter turnout mark, with the 55.3 percent turnout in 2004 the highest since the Vietnam War drew out 60.8 percent in 1968.
This statistic becomes especially relevant when you consider that, in the last 40 years, the highest voter turnout percentage for a midterm election is just over 39 percent. This means that despite the widespread discontent about our government, just over one in three Americans is actually motivated enough to make his or her voice heard. No wonder the incumbency rate is so tragically high!
To be honest, though, it's not as though our own congressmen and congresswomen set the best examples for us anyway. Sen. Dave Jackson, R-Kan., has earned the nickname "Missing-in-Action Jackson" for his habit of missing key Senate votes, even when they concern his own state.
Yet of late, the title of most notorious vote-skipper in the Senate belongs to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has missed a full 40 percent of roll call votes this year. Sen. John Edwards, D-S.C., had a similar track record four years ago during his own presidential campaign, demonstrating that the problem is a recurring one that transcends party lines.
In fact, the current list of the 10 most absent senators reveals an equal number of Republicans and Democrats have been skipping out on their duties. Four of the 10 are busy running presidential campaigns. What excuse do the other six have?
Voter apathy is not just an issue of citizens not making their voices heard. As you can see, even those who do vote find that the very people we have elected to be our voices care just as little as our nonvoting peers! This reality is disturbing. Mr. Generic Senator, you are being paid hundreds of thousands of my tax dollars to do a job which, quite honestly, consists 90 percent of showing up and saying "aye" or "nay." If you are not going to do that, I would like 90 percent of my money back, please.
As we all know, Americans are far more likely to watch the new episode of "American Idol" than they are the State of the Union address. There is nothing wrong with that, per se. The trouble is when the "American Idol" mentality creeps into the voting reality.
On "American Idol," if you don't like what the performer is singing, you can simply change the channel and wait for him to go away. But if you turn on the television and see your governor telling you that he is going to raise your taxes, simply changing the channel doesn't work quite as well. Every election we hear that the time for change is now. But if we are not willing to fight (or even, for God's sake, press a button) for that change, America's future will continue to flounder in a flood of apathy.
Shane Carley is a freshman in the School of International Service and a conservative columnist for The Eagle.
