John McGovern
Over the past few weeks, a group of wealthy Christians started to repeatedly engage in a dialogue on the prevalent issues facing the U.S. At these meetings, a live studio audience looks on, applauding at the appropriate times as the participants score political points. It’s standard operating procedure at this point for the election process: A little over a year from the big day, the party out of power starts to whittle down a shortlist for the primaries soon to come. Yet one aspect seems different this year. It’s not just the candidates who are slipping up and saying inappropriate things; it’s the audiences.
After Wolf Blitzer asked Texas Representative Ron Paul about the future of a comatose uninsured American, “Are you saying that society should just let him die?” a group of observers cheered. After Governor Rick Perry was confronted with his record-breaking 234 death row inmates who faced execution, (previous record holder was George W. Bush) the crowd enthusiastically applauded. A gay army soldier via webcam was aggressively booed, followed by applause for Santorum’s decision to enforce Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy if he were elected. The GOP electorate seems to be intermingled with bloodlust savages who get off on limiting the rights of American citizens, dead or alive. And they vote.
This electorate poses a threat to the sustainability of equal rights among American citizens. Not only are they more vocal than their liberal counterparts, the apathy of the left gives them even more power. While Obama worries if he’s moderate enough for re-election, GOP candidates must be wondering how authoritarian and conservative they have to posture to galvanize this zealous voting bloc.
What does it say about the most profitable democracy the planet has ever seen when its members are excited about denying their neighbors’ rights? What does it say when death arouses excitement, when a populace embraces a platform of “I got mine” while millions face poverty and bigotry? One of the frontrunners, Rick Perry, governed over a state which in 2009 had a quarter of the population living without health insurance. Yet the voters don’t want to hear about “socialized medicine”; they just want to make sure homosexuals can’t marry or serve in the military.
No one can wish for a more open discussion on the right overnight. A more realistic goal is matching those votes on the left. The practice of re-registering to vote every year due to a change in dorm residence drastically affects the turnout of local and national elections. As a result, the largely liberal student population in the U.S. annually fails to participate in the simplest act of citizenship.
Both the established parties of the left and right are reacting to an increasingly partisan society. The Democrats are leaning right while the Republicans, with the help of the Tea Party, charge in the same direction. Without the participation of young Americans hopeful for attaining the rights European democracies have lived under for decades, this country will continue the march towards inefficient discussion and inadequate governance.
John McGovern is a Viewpoints Editor for the Voice and can be reached for comment at JMcGovern12@wooster.edu