hyalineskies

The election “season” is in full swing, and with it comes hordes of campus lobbyists, from normal to insane, left or right. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen plenty of notable spectacles, from an evangelist trying to explain heterosexual vs. homosexual sex with electrical cords to absurd, la-la-we-can’t-hear-you arguments people have has with affirmative action proponents. Of course, the usual campus organisations (the College Dems and College Republicans) have also been out lobbying for their respective candidates. Last week, supporters of incumbent governor Jennifer Granholm were handing out “Go blue, go Granholm” stickers on routes leading to Michigan Stadium. A rather rowdy undergraduate male in front of me snatched a Granholm sticker, read the sticker, and then (quite loudly) asked his nearby friend, “Hey! Who’s Granholm?” As if not knowing who the governor of your own state isn’t bad enough, he continued: “Is she from my party?”

Unfortunately, this type of political ignorance — and its subsequent ignorant voting — seems to be at the core of today’s college political sphere. As for the man with the Granholm sticker, he doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of politics and certainly doesn’t recognise the power of voting. Political ignorance is more than stupid: it’s dangerous. Such ignorance has led to many disasters in political history, and I do believe it’s safe to say that it has led to the re-election of our current president.

It’s a travesty, really: we’re selling out our greatest power to shape American culture to the best advertising agencies and to the pressures of our peers. We sell out our democratic power — and our futures — to candidates that our friends just tell us are the right ones. How can the American populace commit an act of such stupidity? Every time I hear the unfounded political opinions of a fellow student, or an ignorant statement such as sticker-man’s, I lose even more faith in and respect for all of the student body around me.

What’s the cause of all of this, anyway? While the cynic in me wants to attribute this ignorance to the absolute apathy of most undergraduates to anything other than binge drinking and the occasional midterm, the economist in me is arguing that student group-think exists due to positive network effects. What is it, then? Are undergraduates just too busy with the study-drink-sleep lifestyle, or is there just some much-needed social security in not standing alone at times? If it’s the first issue, these poor kids need to grow up and see what else the world has to offer (the world is, after all, much larger than the diminutive Ann Arbor campus.) If it’s their own personal insecurity, these people should’ve worked through their identity crises in high school. If you’ve gained the power to vote, you’ve also been laden with the responsibility of possessing a tool more powerful than any firearm.

I’m infuriated writing this, especially because there seems to be little that anyone can do to solve this issue. We can’t educate the masses about their own government by force; we can’t coercively set some of their time aside to learn about politics come election time. There’s very little anyone can do other than get out and hope to counter-vote the ignorant, whichever way you feel that ignorance lies. Our government has too much power for us not to vote intelligently: unlike that Michigan football game our hated sticker-man was headed to, whoever wins an election gains control over you, me, and the most powerful single state in the world. (But, I’m sure, as always, that the Wolverines’ BCS standings are more important than who we elect to govern the state and to represent us in Congress, am I correct? Silence your insecurities with some Milwaukee’s Best and another round of Hail to the Victors, right? While the American population may be the “victors of the West” on a grander scale, if this is what the majority of the next generation is to become, I can’t expect America to be the victor of anything in the future.)