Opinion
 

Consumerism eclipses civic duty

By Matt Clement

Even though a great deal of people are registered to vote, the percentage of Americans who actually vote in presidential elections has been declining for a number of years. Only about 50 percent of the eligible voters in the United States even go to the polls on Election Day.

It is important to vote, but it is more important for more people to just talk about issues in which they are interested. There needs to be more discussion which presidential candidates can stimulate. But the Democrats and Republicans only encourage a narrow range of debate. Therefore, if we are to discuss presidential candidates, if we are to argue about which one is better, we should only talk about them as a means through which the American people will be motivated to talk about the issues. If the candidate can't do that (especially when they have huge amounts of media exposure) then that person is an insult to American democracy.

Presidential candidates are not the only culprits in weakening the political spirit of America. The media and corporate executives should probably take most of the blame here. They provide us with information that only serves to increase their profits. Encouraging civic activity eats away at their profits. In the 1960s, corporate America nearly lost a generation of consumers. That would have been devastating to profit margins.

Taking control of the media was an important tool in maintaining a mindset of consumption for corporate executives. If corporate executives could manage the information coming from media, they could have a monopoly on the production of American attitudes and behavior. If they could get us to keep buying their stuff, they could continue growing their stash of digital dollars. 

So why do only about 50 percent of eligible voters participate in presidential elections? The answer is not that complicated. We have messages that encourage consumption, not civic activity. We have politicians, like Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who voted for legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which made it legal for large media conglomerates to grow even bigger and to destroy local media outlets. We have presidential candidates, like President George W. Bush and Kerry, who have access to the public via the media, but choose to not make the experience any more exciting than Extreme Makeover. This doesn't even deal with the fact that elections are on a workday.

The responsibility to change these conditions lies with us. If we find issues that matter to us, we need to discuss them. Start discussing with family and friends, then with absolute strangers. The desire to act on these issues is what will follow from an understanding of how we think. Additionally, to think about voting for a president is meaningless, especially because so few people vote. So, the next time you ask, "Who are you going to vote for?" why not ask, "What do you care about?"

Clement, a teaching assistant in the Department 
of Sociology, can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.