Of the editorial/opinion page staff
published by the StarTribune November 3, 1968
THE VOTER is a constant paradox. He may claim to be as patriotic as George Washington ever was. He may talk politics with all the zeal of Hubert Humphrey or Richard Nixon. He may harangue against communism, plead for the preservation of democracy, wrap himself up in the flag--and not vote on election day.
Or he may be the apathetic type, the why-bother cynic who knows the election process is a fraud, a meaningless rite in which the results are rigged or at least beyond the meager power of one voter to change. Why waste time standing in line? Why risk pneumonia getting to the polls? Everything will come out as Big Daddy planned anyway.
THEN THERE'S the outraged liberal. He cusses the Republicans for not having the brains to nominate Rockefeller and the Democrats for not picking McCarthy. What a rejection of the popular will! Mr. Liberal will stay home, thank you.
This sulking patriot does no more for the system we cherish than does the scoffer who insists that elections are for the birds. And only a minuscule contribution is made by that uncompromising scourge of communism who knows all the political answers but has never pulled the lever on a voting machine.
If 65 per cent of the citizens 21 or older cast ballots next Tuesday, the turnout will be as amazing as the sight of a hippie in a barbershop. The vote was considered unusually heavy four years ago when Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater. However, 37 per cent of the voters scratched the polls.
Some had legitimate excuses, but not those who were hung up by bad weather, head colds or sleepless nights, or those who didn't like the candidates. If they see no point in making a choice between Elmer Hickenloafer and Jerome Undertoe they haven't studied the issues or the candidates sufficiently. The qualifications of the two can't be identical, and the voter who can't make a choice can at least cast a protest vote for the Share-the-Wealth party.
We are at a point in history where democracy is on trial, not because of any rise in Communist influence but because of the scientific explosion. Old values are being eroded and old myths blown up as technology moves ahead at a much faster clip than the social, political and economic sciences.
SOME STUDENTS of government fear that democracy, though noble in theory and the most successful form of government history ever has known, has about had it. It must make way for a system, they suspect, that though less representative of the people, will be more in step with the forces which push irrevocably into a future that is both bright with promise and rife with uncertainty.
We want democracy to survive. And in the years ahead when things get rough, it will behoove the non-voter to keep his mouth shut. If he doesn't vote, he has no license to rail against crooked or stupid politicians or conspiracies against the people.
The best thing for him to do is to start informing himself about government, getting into politics--and voting. Let him leave the cynic's perch and get busy at the task of electing men to public office who can see farther than their partisan noses.
Copyright 2020 StarTribune. Republished here with the permission of the StarTribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the StarTribune.
