A new ad campaign has recently caught my eye. McDonalds, that paragon of community virtue, is promoting voting to African-Americans with this slogan: "Vote. any reason is every reason." Included in the ads appearing in the D.C. Metro (i.e. subway) is a small golden arches and a plug for 365black.com. The website is a rather strange bit of PR and advertising that bills itself as a place to "meet real people whose lives have been touched by McDonald's." But, I digress . . . you can read more about it from Politico here or go out to the site on your own and celebrate being black all year long (that's the 365 part if you missed it).
After asking the initial question on everyone's mind---just why the heck is Mickey-D's trying to get out the vote . . . and why are they targeting only blacks?---my thoughts quickly turned to the slogan itself. I soon concluded that I could not disagree more with the orange-headed clown's civics advice.
Certainly, I favor greater democratic participation and find the voter turnout of recent elections to be a sad sign for America's civil society, but there are plenty of horrible reasons upon which to base one's vote. Sadly, several thousand Americans will likely vote for John McCain simply because he is "not the black Muslim guy." That's not a good reason to vote. Neither is the fact that someone "looks presidential" in Europe. (Please indulge a quick tangent on the lack of substance in the media: when is the last time some "news" program not on PBS showed more than two sentences of a speech? Tonight, on a cable newschannel that needs to fill 24 hours of programming, I saw video of McCain with the Dalai Lama and Obama with the French President but heard nothing of what either actually said. Instead, the talking heads just went on and on about the "good images" coming out for the Democrat this week and noted the Republican's need to "counter-program" with the camera friendly Tibetan.)
Hollywood is soon to dramatize the low state of our citizenry with the movie "Swing Voter." Kevin Costner plays Joe-Idiot who doesn't know anything about politics and doesn't care, but his Lisa Simpsonesque daughter nags him into voting. Hey, what do you know but the darn machine screws up and the presidential election ends up exactly tied . . . meaning that now Bud (character's actual name...who want's to bet against him casting his ballot and announcing "this Bud's for you") gets to cast his ballot again and single-handedly choose the next leader of the Free World. You can see how far Costner has fallen since Dances with Wolves here.
Well, the truth is that our government is not in the hands of one "Bud" but several million. These are the people who voted for both Clinton and W and think that their votes were perfectly consistent. Don't bother pointing out the major policy differences between the two because America's swing voters won't have a clue what you are talking about.
The future is in their hands.
While it won't make a good ad for the side of a bus, here is my free advice to the uniformed voters of today. (1) There is still time to read up and think through the pros and cons of each candidate. You can do it, and America will be strengthened by your thoughtful vote. (2) If, however, the calendar hits November and you don't really have a clue what to do, be the most responsible citizen you can . . . and just stay home. Not every reason is reason enough to cancel out a better informed vote.
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It sounds like the "I want to believe" of the latest X Files movie. Whether it's "I want to believe" or "I want to vote," what makes the act virtuous (assuming it is an act and not just a desire), is largely dependent on the object of belief - or even the object of voting. Surely there's nothing admirable about the simple act of believing (something) or voting (for something).
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