Old friend/editor Alan Wirzbicki writes in the New Republic Online on the futility of those "voting is cool" drives to encourage youth voting in the US. Makes a good point:
Makes sense to me. Never quite understood how "rock the vote" or "choose or lose" worked without any appeal to the value of the political process to the would-be voter. I suppose campaigns can make voting cool (debatable), but ultimately it has to motivate someone to drag her butt down to the polling station.... as non-partisan groups, these outfits all promote voting for voting's sake, and stay away from endorsing candidates or anything but the most vague causes ("change," "justice").
Maybe I travel in cynical circles, but I have never met anyone who votes solely out of an abstract sense of civic responsibility.
Edit: Apparently, according to James Wolcott, in so linking, I've just perpetuated the "Harvard Crimson-Washington Monthly-New Republic brain trust".
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