Actually, “get out the vote” drives are about one thing only - they’re about partisans working to get people to vote for their guy. Any time you see a ‘get out the vote’ drive, all you have to do is look at the voting tendencies of the demographic group in general, and you can predict which party is running the drive.
In this case, Democrats figure that young people will tend to vote for Democrats, even if they don’t have a clue what they are doing. Therefore, there is a strong push from within the party to get young people to vote.
On the other side, you’ll Republicans doing hispanic outreach and other get out of the vote drives in their constituencies.
So really, pushing to get the ignorant to go out and vote is just a form of voter manipulation. From that standpoint, Stone and Parker are exactly right - if you don’t know about politics or don’t care who wins, don’t vote. If you let someone convince you to vote for who they want because they either guilted or bribed you into it, you’re just a pawn.
Vote if you care about an issue strongly enough to learn about it and choose sides. If you don’t, stay home. Don’t let someone else badger you into voting for their guy.
I believe this has much more to do with partisan rhetoric, attack ads, and biased media coverage. Don’t our politicians, parties, and the media deserve much of the blame? It can be exceedingly difficult to weed out fact from fiction (spin) in political campaigns. When you hear a “fact” come out of a politician’s mouth you can’t expect it to be accurate, but more often than not, if it’s not an outright lie, it is a misrepresentation. Why is the greater onus on us to expose the misrepresentation, than it is on the politician to be more forthright? They are depending on people to take what they say at face-value without looking at it critically. Why shouldn’t we hold as high an expectation for honesty in our elected officials as we do in our employees and employers?
And the media, well, don’t even get me started. The soundbite sells, the explanation does not. Or at least that’s what they keep telling us… :mad:
I can understand why people are confused. That’s a big reason why I’m here. I’ve learned a lot here, but I’ve also had to weed through post after post of rhetoric.
A question: does anyone else think the issues are the ballot are poorly written, difficult to understand, and lacking in complete information? Is this maybe a problem as well? I know I dread getting down to the issues part of the ballot, even when I’ve done my research (I go in thinking, “Okay, 1=No, 2=Yes…”). God help me if I actually read it on the ballot, as I start second-guessing myself. Maybe I am stupid…
All you have to do is arrange to be out of town that day. Then you can vote absentee-like in the relative comfort & privacy of the City Clerks Office. My voting is already done!!
Well, YES, because then you will have informed voters. Matt Stone’s point is that if you do not anything about the issues, you ought not to vote. The message here, IMO, isn’t “don’t vote” but more “get informed before you vote.”
ATTEND TO THIS, MY FELLOWS IN THE CLUELESS CLASS! See the above quote and Bear Witness to the Real Intentions of the so-called “informed”! Observe their true ambitions in their attempts to build power at the expense of the freedom of we, The Under-Clued!
FIGHT THE POWER OF INFORMATION! Stand up and Defend Your Right to Not Know What’s Going On! Let the opposition know that we Refuse to be Swayed by Intelligence! Protect your children – Keep Facts out of Our Schools! ONLY BY BEING OBLIVIOUS CAN WE BE TRULY FREE!
Take Charge of your Naivete! Don’t let Informed People Infringe upon Your Pursuit Of Happiness, for remember, IGNORANCE IS BLISS!
Well, I say only people with bachelors degrees or better in a field like history, political science, or economics should be able to vote.
No, wait. Most any dolt can get an undergraduate degree.
If you don’t have at least a Ph.D in Political Science, History, or Economics, I think you’re too ignorant to vote. You simply don’t understand the world well enough from a socio-geo-political framework to be considered “informed” enough to vote.
How can someone who merely reads the papers and watches TV with no background in politics or world affairs possibly be expected to cast an informed vote.
Why don’t you all just leave it in the hands of the truly educated.
sarcasm mode off.
pissed mode on.
What a load of total fuckin elitist bullshit that whole attitude of “not informed enough to vote is”.
What a self-righteous mother fucker you must be to espouse it.
After having seen TA:WP and several interviews Parker and Stone did promoting it, it is clear that they are the biggest uninformed Hollywood celebs around.
Strangely, there were no Parker and Stone puppets in TA:WP being made fun of or getting blown up. Very, very odd there.
I hope they practice what they preach and don’t vote.
Why are we debating the opinion of a couple of Hollywood celebrities in some music rag? Does no one understand whooshing anymore? These are the people who brought us Orgazmo.
The whole idea sounds nice on paper, but I can easily see someone telling me that since I disagree with him, it must be because I’m less educated on the issues than he is, and therefore, I don’t deserve to vote.
For some issues, that may be true. I probably shouldn’t be voting on tax code, or environmental regulations, or funding for the new football stadium. However, because I vote for gay rights, abortion, and transportation, trade, library and museum funding, and education, I have to vote for everything.
My father doesn’t know anything about the Iraq War, even though he feels very strongly about it. It never occured to me to discourage him from voting because he represents the opinions of an electorate. His opinion matters no matter what it is, or how it came to be formed. That’s what a representative government is. Representative of its people. It’s only fair.
I have to assume that any new voters who register to vote and actually make the trip to the polls will have an opinion on at least one issue. Whether it is fear of perpetual war among the young or concerns about economic hardship among the poor, there will be at least one underlying issue there. No one is going to make the effort to vote for no other reason than because someone at a pizza joint thrust a form at them. If these new or infrequent voters are roused from their apathy to act, that is good–they have a voice and should let it be heard. At the very least, it is no worse than the legions of misinformed and single-issue voters who vote in every election.
In order to successfully whoosh, you have to have a clue. Parker and Stone don’t have a clue about politics.
Take the follow example (people have tried this on me). A creation idiot tells me the following:
“If we’re descended from monkeys, then why are the monkeys still around?”
Now, this guy thinks he just made a brilliant statement. He also knows that there are a lot of people who agree with it. But the reality is that he doesn’t have a clue. The existence of other people who agree with the clueless doesn’t carry any weight. Clueless is clueless.
So the only whooshing going on is directly over Parker and Stone’s head and they don’t get it. Again, why aren’t there puppets of Parker and Stone in the movie? Why is the political world view identical to Karl Rove’s? Etc.
I’d say you’re the one getting whooshed. The whole movie is a satire of Rove’s worldview as well as an attack on the pomposity of actors who confuse celebrity with authority.
Yes, in a rough and ethnically diverse urban neighborhood.
Just kidding. I’m a member of the Canadian Forces Reserve in army communications and our main symbol is the Greek god Hermes (aka Mercury) wth examnples on the lower part of this page. Naturally, a standard joke is that we work for FTD Flowers.
While I admit I wish dumb people would refrain from voting, I’m on record opposing any kind of “political awareness” testing.
I think it’s a pointless comment. No one thinks he’s stupid or uninformed, so no one will be affected by the quote except people like Stone who think that people who disagree with them are stupid and should be looked down upon.
As Thomas Carlyle said, “In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.”
I feel like this thread doesn’t belong in Cafe Society.
I think anyone who is discouraging people from voting is dead wrong. It’s ridiculous to think any normal adult human being in America doesn’t have at least some sort of working grasp on a couple of issues. Hell, many very smart people are one or two issue voters. Do you really think people who are too lazy and stupid to read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch the news, would be motivated enough to register to vote and show up to the polling place? Seriously now. I think more registered and participating voters is a good thing. I’d say that even if I knew all the newly registered voters were going to vote Bush. At least then I’d feel confident that he was what America really wanted.
One of the great parts of being an American is that you don’t have to be a mega-genius to vote, or a man, or white, or a land owner, or meet any other qualifications that could be put in your way. All you have to do is be an American, have an address, and be 18 years old; you also have to get off your butt, register, go to the polling place, and pull the lever. That’s it, thank god. I have to agree with the poster who said it’s elitist crap to tell people if they don’t meet your qualification for “informed” then they shouldn’t vote. At what level is a person “qualified”? I’m glad no one gets to decide that, because then we’d have Jim Crow all over again.
Though he has serious grammar issues, I essentially agree with Sean Penn. Morons like Parker and Stone should stick to poop jokes and stop proselytizing if they’re going to keep people away from the polls. You can try to say that they’re satirizing Penn, but they’re actually doing harm and are being snotty and irrational to boot. Love Penn or hate him, at least he’s getting off his ass and getting informed, then using his status to fight ignorance. Right? You can be all snide about him being a mouthy celebrity, but the bottom line is, he’s putting his money where his mouth is. I’d admire that even if I disagreed with him.
As for being informed… I am relatively informed but I’m voting for John Kerry anyway.
Okay, first of all, they said that if you are uninformed, then you probably shouldn’t vote. (not stupid, not ignorant, not uneducated. If you are voting for Kerry because he wears nice ties, you are not contributing much to the country)
Secondly, they said that if you are uninformed, then you probably shouldn’t vote. (not that you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Crucial difference, people.)
Does no one understand whooshing anymore? These are the people who brought us Orgazmo.