Ignophobia – Nathan Mallory's Weblog

Something rather important is happening this year, and I question how many people in our country really stop to think about it.

The average citizen’s ignorance and apathy to the political world is glaringly reflected in voter turnouts for our presidential elections, arguably the most critical appointment in the United States. For instance, in the controversial 2000 presidential election only 67% of voters came to the polls. By comparison, the film Titanic earned $600 million at the box office in the US alone. At $7.50 a ticket, that’s 80 million seats filled for a three hour movie! Will Titanic change the world? Probably not, and its impact will surely be far less than whether George Bush or Al Gore was commander-in-chief on 9/11.

The explanation for low voter turnout is not difficult to understand. Excepting the miniscule percent that choose not to vote as a political statement, the myriad of reasons run the gambit of indolence, from lack of interest to a belief that a single vote does not make a difference (have a look at Florida in the last election if you still buy into that one), from lack of time to simple ignorance of the issues. This is my case to readers in any of those categories.

The truth is, it has never been more important for the voices of sound-thinking Americans to be heard than it is now. We have no great war to fight, no foe formidable enough to even stare the might of the U.S. military in the face, and despite whatever partisan fools might screech, no tyrant on the inside threatening to undo the fabric of our nation’s Constitution. Why does that make voting, understanding politics, and making your opinion known important? Because it is where and who we are now that is at stake. If we are under threat of annihilation by foreign invaders, even the most unsound citizen knows what must be done. It’s when the waters are calm and Americans are comfortably able to worry about duct taping their windows or who the President may or may not have shagged that we as a nation can be eroded. We are hard when times call for hardness, but when we are soft, what then? How vulnerable can we afford to leave ourselves?

September 11th was critical because it served as a wake-up call, telling us we were not unassailable. But the attack also divided us as a nation ideologically as to how we should deal with an invisible threat, with no capitol to bomb or troops against whom we might pit our own. Some people believe that with no war and with no specifically identifiable enemy we should refrain from the use of military force as it smacks of imperialism, and so blinded are they in their hatred of our current President that they fight his every word tooth and nail, ready to accept any alternative.

Now you Republicans out there, make no mistake: the United States surely is the new Roman Empire. We are the unarguable final superpower who uses its Fat Cat status to preserve its own interests. We are the Microsoft of the world, and discussed around the world with about the same degree of loathing as our friendly Redmond monopoly. In fact, we as a nation could learn a lesson or two from Microsoft on superpowering. Their tactics may have changed a bit (again, arguably) and their tone not nearly as technologically imperialistic, but at no point did Redmond take their eye off the prize – their own self-interests. As with Microsoft, the U.S. must not exercise its power with careless disregard for other nations, but our national self-interest is not the global sentiment. Other nations won’t hesitate to shaft America for their own gain (and do so regularly), and the minute we cease to consider that, the erosion begins.

That’s not to say that Microsoft is perfect, or that the United States cannot teach Bill Gates a thing or two. We are the Roman Empire as MS rules the computing world, but we employ our massive, MOAB-tipped fist with unprecedented care. Never before in written history (Luke, correct me here if I’m mistaken) has a single nation towered so significantly over all the rest, and not promptly used their might wherever and whenever they please. Some might point assertively at Afghanistan and Iraq in objection, but they would be mistaken; there is a marked distinction between preservation of self-interest (and yes, I would call continual defiance of U.N. mandates and an assassination attempt on a sitting President pretty damn good grounds for removal) and Manifest Destiny. Listen to Gore Vidal all you want, but the U.S. is no empire. At no point have we tried to expand our nation beyond its boundaries, at least not in recent history anyways. Look to the continent of Europe for that, if you must.

It all boils down to power, and that’s just what politics is about. The U.S. is powerful, and other countries would like to have it. America wants to maintain power, but to look at the benevolent superpower, historically speaking, doing what it can to protect itself, calling it or its President “power hungry,” and then denying the same critical eye to other nations even more ravenously hunting the stuff, that’s shortsighted.

My point is this. The United States has no clear and present enemy, and no perceptible reason to harden itself. France can protest all day long; they cannot change American policy and need our capital far more that we need theirs. No, ultimately, only Americans can change what and who we are, and therein lies the precarious nature of our present situation. Whether driven by thoughtless abhorrence of President Bush or unwittingly affected by the desires of other nations, certain partisan wings of the minority party in this country have lost sight of our own self-interests. Listen to a Democratic primary debate – the goal is not to better the nation but to defeat George Bush, to undo everything he has done. Because it is bad for the nation, or because he did it?

In the end, the difference boils down to ideology. Do you believe America is an aggressive superpower that should be equalized with the other nations of the world, France, Germany, China, Japan? Do you believe Iraq was entirely about oil and American imperialism? Do you believe that popular vote should carry more weight than the electoral college? Understand the issues, figure out your own answers, and march into this battle of principle with as much conviction and solidity as our soldiers did in the many equally just fights: to defend our country.