This quotation was stated in an opinion piece, “Uninformed voters hurt democratic process, stop voting” in the Aug. 28 issue of the Daily Forty-Niner: “There are legions of uninformed people who vote based on political campaign commercials, name plates and billboards. This is not how a people should be informed.”
The writer, Sean Cocca, explained how “the masses” are uninformed and should not vote because they may not have knowledge of the political candidates and issues and, as a result, their choices negatively affect the political world.
I agree that people should do the research and find out what exactly is going on and question it before making important decisions. Around election time, people will receive tons of flyers encouraging them to vote. Political commercials crowd television sets and flashy banners line the streets. Residents get numerous phone calls as campaign workers inform and promote issues and their candidates. But these ways of receiving information should not be a person’s only source to making an important decision.
But further into the article Cocca stated, “I think our forefathers had the right idea. They knew the general population was fickle and uninformed.” To say that our country’s forefathers “knew” the general population was not knowledgeable of political issues and that it was a good idea is not a fair statement.
Important political issues were kept from the masses for one reason: power. The forefathers wanted to keep them from finding out information because they “knew” that if people did not have access to resources, they would not know what was going on, which would have given the forefathers the opportunity to do what they wanted, when they wanted. Without knowledge, there is no power. And with no power, there is no change.
For instance, women and African-Americans, for years, were not allowed to vote. Both groups were told they were not smart enough to make intelligent and responsible choices, but that was only because they were kept away from the necessary resources. So of course, the forefathers “knew” the general population did not know what was going on.
The article also questioned the “Vote or Die” and “Rock the Vote” campaigns promoted by rapper P. Diddy and MTV, respectively, which were to attract teenagers and college-aged people to vote. I think it is a great idea to reach out to young people about playing a major role in the political process. But, in order for young people to participate and vote intelligently, they need to utilize the resources available and use as many as possible, whether it’s reading the newspaper daily and performing detailed research on a political issue to having their voices heard.
The writer also stated that “some things are far too important to leave in the hands of the masses. Sometimes people should just stay home on election day.” Telling people to just stay at home does not motivate them to really find out how the decisions made will affect their daily lives. We should not leave the important decision-making just to the educated and “well read.” Everyone should be involved, whether they are weak, strong, rich or poor. Now that we are able to vote we need to take advantage of it. We need sit down and think about how the current laws are affecting how we live and find out how the politicians plan to change, if anything.
Since the forefathers did not seem to help educate, this is a great reason why we, as a society, need to motivate everyone to educate themselves to play a powerful role and make a difference in the political world today.
Starr T. Balmer is a senior journalism major and editor in chief for the Daily Forty-Niner.