Midnight Oil

Subject: Re: NMOC - Re: [powderworks] Re: Is Peter still on the front bench?
From: Chris
Date: 21/07/2010, 2:00 pm
CC: Powderworks

Ack! Accursed spellchecker - uniNformed, not uniformed.

- Chris

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Chris <seeker42@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Miron Mizrahi <mironmizrahi@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I have criticism but I also feel very lucky to be living in a country
where I am allowed to vote. and I feel sad that we have to force people to
do so to get a decent turnout. many many people on earth don't enjoy this
fundamental right and it would seem we have a fair number who couldn't care
less


I've never really understood this line of reasoning - as I see it, forcing
compulsory voting only encourages popularist campaign tactics (handouts,
grants, tax cuts, "community" funding). As far a I can tell, forcing the
uniformed to vote just nets you a lot of uniformed votes.

I agree that everyone has the RIGHT to have a say in the running of their
country. But when people who have no real opinion ("oh, my dad voted labor
all his life") or who conduct only a very shallow analysis ("I just think
it's nice we have a woman in office", "Julia is promising to give tax
rebates to cover school uniforms, isn't that nice!") are forced to vote, we
ascribe more weight to those votes than the voters did when they lodged
them.

Even amongst my friends (mostly university students between 18 and 21,
studying engineering or science) the majority are politically uniformed, and
will vote based on a single issue - "I'm worried that Tony can't separate
his Catholic views from his policies", "I'm voting Green because the other
parties are all the same", "Labor are liars", "I'm never going to vote
for the Liberals after Howard", "Labor listen to the will of the people" and
so on. Certainly SOME are capable of sustained debate, but most make up
their their mind, find a rationalisation, and then tune back out, because
THEY DON'T CARE. The reason they give isn't the one they care MOST about,
it's the only one they can be bothered to care about at all, and even then
only because they're EXPECTED to have an opinion.

- Chris