I’m Not The Only One

by Daniel Cuevas

Originally published on November 25, 2004.

From the Presidential debates, to both of the candidates’ campaigns, to the techniques used to encourage young people to vote, the 2004 election contained enough blunders to make a blooper reel.
Mistakes were made by both Republicans and Democrats, the media and various activist organizations.
There are many lessons to be learned from this election; lessons that if learned and if seriously taken to heart will result in a better election process in 2008. While deeper research can probably produce more issues for examination, the following are the top three things we should learn from the election.

1. We must prioritize the issues that affect us the most, not the issues that mean the most to us.

Why, in a time when the security of our nation has never been so severely threatened since the Cold War, American jobs are going overseas and our skies, soil and seas are ripe with pollutants, do I keep hearing all these exit polls claiming that moral values were the issue voters were most concerned about?
How did moral values become the top criteria in selecting a President? George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry were running for President, not for Pope! When did the United States become one big church? I was taught to believe that morality was a personal choice of the individual, and not something that should come from the Constitution or the Commander-in-Chief. But sure enough, same-sex marriages were definitely a hot topic during the Presidential debates. It was the one issue where President Bush actually gave a straight answer (one of the few answers he gave where I actually believed he meant what he said) and Senator Kerry couldn’t remember whether he was for or against it. Same-sex marriage was such an important issue it was on the referendum ballot in eleven states.
I would have liked to have seen something different on the referendum ballots, maybe something addressing the fact our nation’s nuclear power plants have the same level of security as your local public library. Three years after 9-11, and the level of the security of American nuclear power plants are still determined by the discretion of that plant’s owner. Do people care, or even know this? If not, why not?
It’s no coincidence that more children are being born with autism and learning disabilities at the same time that pollutants saturate the air we breathe. Why did Bush reject U.S. participation in the Kyoto global warming treaty when this nation emits more than a quarter of the world’s airborne pollution? Does the very question beg the answer? Sure, the Bush Administration did create some jobs in the U.S., but those numbers were offset by the number of jobs that went overseas.
Can’t we have referendums to address these issues? Morality is such a subjective issue, and to mull over it when there are more concrete (and more important) issues at hand is ridiculous. Personally, civil rights is the issue most important to me. But I knew deep inside that the possibility of another terrorist attack on American soil and our pro-industry environmental policy were far greater problems facing Americans than Colin Powell’s kid handing out hundred thousand dollar FCC fines to radio DJs and other media outlets that broadcast questionable content. And that’s the mentality I had when I entered the voting booth. The witch-hunt mentality of censorship in this country does bother me, but I know the above-mentioned issues impact us all far more profoundly.

2. We must encourage our youth to vote using the same approach we would as if they were older than 29.

The whole Rock the Vote/Declare Yourself/Vote or Die Because Some Rapper Will Come to Your House and Kill You campaigns were well-intended and did have some success. U.S. citizens 18 to 29 years old are allowed to vote for a reason: they are adults and can make adult decisions. They can sign legally binding contracts, marry, smoke cigarettes and join the Armed Forces.
Let’s approach them as the adults they are, confront them with the issues facing the election, educate them about the candidates and then sit back and let them decide if they should bother to vote. Much of the youth voting campaigns focused just on registering to vote, and not sufficiently explaining why they should vote.
This rock video/hip-hop MTV approach only produced marginal success, with even Declare Yourself’s home page (www.declareyourself.com) admitting that only 52 percent of 18 to 29 year olds who were eligible to vote even bothered. Could we have gotten that other 48 percent into the voting booths with a more mature approach? Maybe not, maybe so; we’ll ever know until we try a better approach.
These campaigns’ messages, geared primarily towards urban youth, were that it didn’t matter who you vote for, as long as you vote. Well, if it doesn’t matter who I vote for, why should I bother to vote? I’m not advocating that this teeny-bopper method should be scrapped completely; it did get 52 percent of my apathetic generation into the booths, which is a higher number than in past elections. But using both methods may actually bring that number closer to 80 or 90 percent.
Either start treating voters under 30 like adults or raise the age of suffrage to 30.

3. The level of debate must be raised in order to keep political candidates focused on discussing, not avoiding, the real issues impacting the entire population.

Political Storm was founded with the intent of raising the level of political discourse, which at the time consisted of two conservatives shouting down a liberal, or vice versa, with neither side really hearing what the other had to say. I believe the 2004 election lowered the level of debate even farther.
Name-calling (flip-flopper), fear-mongering (Bush will draft every man and women under 27 years of age! Liberal-minded wolves from Massachusetts are coming to eat your children, and they support Kerry!) and the question of whether or not to ban same-sex marriage and a Constitutional ban on flag-burning were the ongoing theme of this year’s Presidential campaigns.
Did I forget to mention that Kerry and Bush are two rich, over- privileged fat cats who were trying to convince the public that the other guy was the richer, more over- privileged fat cat? (They’re so alike you’d think they were distant cousins of some sort!) Both major parties are to blame for this, as are the corporate-owned media conglomerates who have sworn their allegiance to either faction.
Raising the level of debate forces voters to confront the issues that actually affect them, which will cause them to demand better leadership than Bush, a man who stands for all the wrong things and Kerry, a man who stands for nothing. Who knows, with an upgrade in political discussion, the American people just may wise up one day and vote for-gasp-a third party candidate!
So, these are what I believe are the three biggest lessons this past election has bestowed upon us. Whether we choose to learn from them is another question.