A few years ago, Gerard Cosloy detailed the reasons why we shouldn’t encourage voting. The founder of Matador Records (and legendary Gen-X curmudgeon) argued convincingly that the last thing this nation needs are legislators put into office by the same people who have made Eminem, Spongebob Squarepants, and Miller Lite what they are today. Is that an elitist point of view? Of course it is. Is it correct? Probably. Look at it this way: Do you really want MTV’s viewership deciding the fate of Social Security?
Of course, it’s a matter of degree. Even the most informed political junky can have a few blind spots. For many years, we entered the voting booth with both a sense of purpose and angst. Why were half the names on the ballot completely new to us? Why hadn’t we seen significant public debate among the major-party candidates for dog catcher? What exactly did the State Auditor do besides run for office every four years? Why were regular, law-abiding citizens–most of whom haven’t seen the inside of a courtroom since The People’s Court–being asked to elect judges?
One response–and we think it was more common than anyone lets on–was to vote for a woman, all else being equal. (Consider this salient truth: The single largest minority or “special interest” is women, who at about 51 percent of the population are actually a numeric majority. So why do women hold less than 10 percent of all elective offices?) Well, we know now that there are plenty of women who are just as capable of wildly misanthropic policy positions as men.
The lesson? If you don’t know for whom to vote, then don’t vote. Simply casting a ballot is not enough. Better you don’t vote at all, than vote for someone arbitrarily on the basis of party affiliation, the color of her lawn signs, or the number of vowels in his surname.
But if, on the other hand, you simply don’t know where to vote, try here.
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