Get the vote out

Brandon McMahan
English 1020
February 12, 2008


At first when I think of the slogan I don’t quite understand it. It is not a complete phrase or a sentence, but when I read the article I see that it is well thought out and the speaker is trying to explain the reasons that people should and should not vote. He first points to extreme examples that could have taken place for people who chose not to vote. He appeals to voting as a privilege and not a law. In the public eye back when the article was written he says that not voting would be viewed as unpatriotic and or unethical. Then he gives an example of an average voter who could be swayed by public opinion. The voter would chose to vote for the people who he was informed about and for those he doesn’t know he would choose at random or the most familiar name. He explains that this would be an example of how someone could vote the wrong people in office. Whereas he might vote intelligently on one or two candidates and the other ones would get a random vote or depending on their publicity campaign. According to the speaker this would result in a loss of the majority of the public’s vote.

The speaker throughout the article stresses the importance of voting intelligently and how by not voting it would do the nation a favor. They think that if you are not going to vote in an intelligent manner you’re better off not voting at all. He also shows that political parties that are not in power can prey on this and use it against the public. His evidence includes surveys done on public opinion that shows a certain proportion of the public have no opinion on many vital issues. He again tackles the idea that it is unpatriotic not to vote saying that an uninformed vote would be a useless one. He even adds a humorous tone in that uninformed people would just create more delay in voting, slowing down the results. These people would even skew the results of the balloting. The main point he is trying to get across is that instead of urging people to vote we should rather encourage people to study and form opinions. If they don’t care to do that then he thinks that they would be better off staying at home. He does not find any problem in the low voter turnout, perhaps prefers it if the majority of them vote wisely. Voting should not be seen as a patriotic thing to if people will not vote in a proper manner.

The article desperately tries to persuade the audience to vote intelligently or don’t vote at all. It starts out as a radical statement that would be heavily criticized if you skim through it or don’t read the whole thing. He seems to have no political affiliation or rather an affiliation with the most suitable candidate no matter what party he represents. It is a surprise that the article is written so long ago but still has clear meaning by today’s standards. In his time people voted with more pride in their country and that’s why they would vote in such a manner. Today people still vote with pride in their country, but there are less numbers and to his fears they would seem to be less intelligent than the people he criticized back then. There are some other issues behind voting besides being patriotic, for example why African Americans vote. African Americans vote for more than themselves they vote because of the struggle and oppression that their ancestors when through to achieve the right to vote. I still do not think that would be an excuse to not know the people for whom you are voting for. I think that we as African Americans owe those who fought for us at least this honor. Now I think that he is building upon the fact that we as a nation would better honor those who fought for this right and our country. He has the right idea in that voting without informing yourself or carelessly voting at random to fill out your ballot could be looked at as more unpatriotic than not voting, at least those who don’t vote will not affect the results of the election in a negative way.