The Rational Value Of The Emotional Vote.

The room was filled with an utter lack of hope. These men had reached a low level of life that's difficult to understand until you see it. Some were mentally ill, some on alcohol, drugs, or both, some simply had run into more bad luck than anyone should ever have to handle. We were at the homeless shelter to register anyone who wanted to vote. I'll never be accused of being a do-gooder, and to be honest I was initially reluctant to go to the shelter when Melody begged me to help. My time is a precious resource that could be better spent reading textbooks, editing student note outlines, or simply espousing my thoughts. Yet I helped register students at the school and we got around 35 students or so registered with their current addresses. Going into a homeless shelter, this was simply a further test in my beliefs that we all own a stake in a democracy when we vote. Sort of the flip side to my belief: if you didn't vote you're not allowed to bitch!

These men wanted to bitch! It doesn't matter who they usually wanted to vote for. That isn't relevant to this post. They wanted to express themselves at the ballot box. Much has been made about the decline in civic participation in the country. From what I understand around half of the U.S. population that is eligible to vote is even registered. From those registered about half even bother to vote. To me those trends say one thing: we, as a country, get the government we deserve. If only one quarter or so of those who have the ability to participate in this democratic experiment actually do so, then our representatives need only take into account the beliefs of those who participate.

As a practical matter I do not blame those in government to allocate resources and reflect the beliefs of the squeaky wheels. Yet America is more than practical concerns, America is an ideal. The ideal of America is why thousands try to cross our borders every day in ways both legal and illegal. The ideal of America why so many in the world want a helping hand; that our strength and generous nature will carry the day for those who need it most. That ideal is a reflection of all the citizens of this country.

What do we all say and think? I don't know. So many of those voices are silent when they fail to participate. Some have suggested that the silence is good when you don't know what you want to do. I can agree with that idea to an extent. All things being equal a voter should be familiar with the issues of interest to him or her and have the knowledge on where the candidates stand on those issues. That way the voter can make an informed decision on which candidate will be a better reflection of that voter's beliefs. Yet notice the parts I've italicized and colored. When it comes to a voter NOT all things are equal. Not all issues are of interest to that person. Why?

All people are a personal combination of rational intelligence and passionate emotion and that is one big sliding scale. Some things are more important to me than others due to the emotions I invest. For example the level of office may not emotionally matter to me. I'm sure both people running for county treasurer are capable of doing the job and the job is important to them, but with that position does it really matter if a Republican or a Democrat runs it? No, and to be honest I couldn't tell you who is running for that position. So with a lower level political office I'll tend to vote for a particular party unless I know something that would sway my vote the other way. Ahh, note how rational knowledge slipped back in on that statement. The voters, the ones that actually vote, have placed a value judgment on various issues. Those value judgments are a reflection of what they feel passionate about. Even the ones who don't vote are making a passionate value statement with their apathy. Weird to think that eh?

While I encourage everyone who will vote to put a reasonable amount of thought into their decisions, I can not discount the passion that helped bring them there. At least they care enough about this experiment to do something about it. At least they care enough to have ownership of the process. For those men who wanted to talk to me as they filled out their voter registration forms, for the guy whose hand was so shaky that I ended up filling out the form for him, for the guy who simply wanted a president to try and figure out a way to make some jobs that he could do, their emotional passion shouldn't be discounted at the ballot box just because they may not care enough to know all the issues and the candidates' stances. At least those men care enough to vote and own a stake in America, and I have to applaud them for that; regardless of the fact they'll likely vote the opposite of me.

That's okay though. Once they vote this time I'll know where they stand. Then I can win them over in the war of ideas. Then perhaps we will have the government we deserve.