don't let 'em say that you slacked
between travel and sicktime this week, i've been a bear of little blog. i returned from los angeles saturday night with the flu or some sort of food poisoning.* but i'm already feeling much better and i'm excited to exercise my civic duty tomorrow.i've taken a personal interest in voting ever since one of my prison interviewees busted me and called me out a few years ago. i had just taken an hour of his time to talk about voting and politics, when i asked whether he had any further questions about the study. here's the shameful transcript:
CU: Well, what about, you know, I’ve been asking you all these questions, do you have any questions for me about this study, about what, what we’re trying to do here, about, uh, anything we’ve been talking about.
X4: Who did you vote for?
CU: [laughs] Who did I vote for?
X4: [laughs].
CU: You know, I tell you, I, I’m ashamed to admit it, I didn’t vote.
X4: You didn’t?
CU: I didn’t vote. I was, ah, I was working.
X4: Why didn’t you vote?
CU: I was, ah, ah, I didn’t take the time.
X4: [laughs].
CU: Too lazy.
X4: You must not like the things they were talking about. Didn’t it interest you?
CU: Yeah, it interested me…
X4: The news?
CU: …it interested me, but ah, but I, you know, I, I’m like everybody else, you know…
X4: You slacked.
CU: I slacked, I thought, well, you know, how much is one vote going to matter?
X4: Who would you have voted for, Bush or something?
yeah, i was pretty ashamed, especially when my ace transcriptionist started taking me to task. only you can prevent this sort of thing from happening in your research endeavors. as you can plainly see, the excuses for non-voting seem pretty lame -- particularly to those who can't vote but would very much like to cast a ballot.
*the primary symptom involved what my antipodean friends call chunder or the ol' technicolor yawn.
posted by christopher uggen @ 6:56 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I've been feeling a little ill myself. It may have been the incessant political ads or the Huevos Rancheros...Rock the Vote!
chris, you say that you did not make time to vote. in your opinion, it doesn't matter who is in office?
i consider myself to be an apathetic-libertarian. i don't like too much government interference in my life, and i don't see the light at the end of the political tunnel. i have turned a deaf ear to the politicians ads because i only hear equivocation and mudslinging. in my opinion, every politician has the same goal once in office: reelection.
i know that was a downer of a passage. im not trying to convert people into non-voters. if you wanna vote, then go for it. im curious if the low voter turn out is the result of people feeling that it doesn't make much of a difference of who is at the helm.
i'm feeling better today, mischelle, so i'll rock the vote before i hit the office today.
blake, i usually make time to vote, but had skipped an election and felt badly about it when challenged. i vote now because i see real differences between many of the candidates. it is also cool to practice democracy and participate as a citizen in my community. for me, this expressive motivation is akin to a secular version of durkheim's religious collective effervescence -- celebrating the social and all that...
I voted today, but pretty much only because my mom would be mad if I didn't. I mean, I too like the thought of participating in democracy, but I also know wayyy to much about how our democracy is run and how our voting system is run to see it as too much of an expression of democracy.
But (especially in response to Blake), I realize that voting is the least one can do politically. It always has been and always will be social movements that determine American politics.
For example, Nixon, the evil conservative, would be considered a flaming pinko if you just look at his record. And Clinton, the great liberal, was extremely conservative on crime, welfare, etc.
The point is that these people's stated political views had nothing to do with the way they acted. What they actually did was in response to the social movements of the time; the anti-war, women's rights, black power, etc. movements of Nixon's time, and the neo-liberal "small government" movements of Clinton's time.
So enjoy your vote, have a beer and argue over who should have won, and then wake up the next morning and get back to work actually making a difference.
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