Civic duty not to vote – watch ABC and decide
October 10, 2008 4 Comments
I caught a segment about the John Stossel program that will be aired on ABC. The snippet I saw was eye opening and down right scary!!! Hoping many reading this post on Iowa Defense will want to be enlightened!
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5985719&page=1
Maybe It’s Your Civic Duty Not to Vote
Should Uninformed Voters Be Casting Their Vote on Nov. 4?
By JOHN STOSSEL
Oct. 9, 2008We keep hearing how important it is for everyone to vote and that voting is our civic duty. Legions of uninformed voters could hit the polls next month.
Celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diddy and Dave Matthews urge everyone to get out and vote. And to help people vote, voter registration groups such as HeadCount deploy volunteers to sign people up.
Watch the story Friday on “20/20″ at 10 p.m. ET and watch John Stossel’s “Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics” at 10 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17.
HeadCount focuses on registering young people at rock concerts and music festivals around the country. During the concerts, famous musicians such as Eddie Vedder and Jack Johnson implore their fans to sign up to vote. Marc Brownstein, the bassist for the band The Disco Biscuits and a co-founder of HeadCount, tells fans to “please participate this year by casting your vote!”
Brownstein and a friend, Andy Bernstein, co-founded HeadCount in 2004.
“We do this because we want the kids to be a part of the political process,” Brownstein said.
Bernstein added, “We registered over 100,000 people. … It is so imperative that this generation’s voice is heard. And they are being heard.”
But are these get-out-the-vote drives entirely a good thing? “20/20″ asked some of HeadCount’s newly registered young people some basic questions about our government.
Some people were knowledgeable. “There are two senators from each state, making a total of 100,” one young voter said. Another knew that “the Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.”
But many of the young voters didn’t seem very informed. Some didn’t know how many states are in the U.S. or how many senators there are. Few could explain Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling upholding abortion rights.
“Roe vs. Wade is segregation maybe?” one new voter guessed.
Another asked: “Was Roe vs. Wade where we declared bankruptcy?” And still another wondered, “That was about a black person and a white person?”
Brownstein said, “There’s a lot of uninformed voters out there.”
So should those uninformed voters just stay home?
But if all the uninformed voters stayed home, who would vote for Obama. McCain would win in a landslide then.
I watched a reporter show a couple of people photos of the candidates and they didn’t know who they were, but they recognized a photo of Judge Judy.
… And this year more citizens than ever are supposedly paying attention to the election. Humph.
I watched- and how sad that so many had such lack of knowledge. Between ACORN and other groups signing up people multiple times (FRAUD) and other groups signing up anyone who is breathing at the time, well, we have a disaster looming.
Hairtrigger says:
“But if all the uninformed voters stayed home, who would vote for Obama. McCain would win in a landslide then.”
I second that.