Please don't show up

Decisions truly are made by those who show up. On that much, I’m thinking we can agree. But then there’s (Dee Hock’s?) take on things: “Whoever shows up are the right people.”  I have trouble with that one.

So, you can imagine I was less than thrilled while perusing the CNN site tonight.

Can’t make the connection? My fault – I should have given you more setup. You see, one of the lead items on the CNN site this evening was an article and blog about Hawaii fielding the perennially lowest voter turnout for national elections and how some woman who’s never, ever voted is running for city council. And this being Hawaii, she actually has a shot.

Then, down the right side there are a series of thumbnails of folks who don’t plan to vote and we’re invited to post comments designed to get them to vote.

My question is, why?

Not meaning why vote – I’ve had that answer ready to go since grade school. No, what I’m getting at is why would we encourage these dullards to vote?

Jefferson spoke of democracy hinging on an educated and informed electorate. I agree. But I’d say there’s a third criterion that should be considered and that’s commitment. If you can’t be bothered to get off your butt and go vote, I’m not sure you’ve sufficient understanding of or dedication to the concept of representative democracy to intelligently exercise the franchise.

I’ve never understood the whole idea of ‘get out the vote’ drives.  Decisions are indeed made by those who show up. So, perhaps what we should be trying to do is make sure the people who show up have access to reliably accurate information. Which of course would mean at the very least funding political campaigns from the public coffers and outlawing donations, which would be problematic since the Supremes have declared that monetary contributions are actually speech within the intent of the Constitution, which has a good joke hiding in there somewhere since all our currency has busts of beloved former presidents who probably ARE the right people to show up but that’s beside the point…. HU-U-U-U-UGE BREATH…I guess now I’m giving you too much setup.

Where the heck was I?

Oh, yeah.

I pretty much always vote. Which is not to say I vote on every item on every ballot. I mean, I really don’t have an opinion as to which candidate is best for Port of Seattle Board of Commissioners Position Seven. But I don’t fake it; I just don’t vote for that one. Unless of course, one of the candidates is silly enough to put something in their voter pamphlet statement that positively identifies them as a dunderhead. Then, of course, the choice becomes simple. There was this one guy…nah, too easy.

Look, if all the people who are too busy or too clueless or can’t find the polling place or forgot today was the day or whatever don’t end up voting, why on earth should we consider that a problem? The people who have a high enough give-a-(darn) factor to have prepared themselves to vote and then actually show up and do the deed are, to my mind, the right people by definition.

So, please, don’t go on the CNN site tonight and try to convince these no-loads to vote. We don’t need them to help make the decision.