Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

That, as I understand from an old yearbook, is history teacher Bill Sutton’s attempt to explain democracy in two words. I’ll get back to that in a minute here.

From my early history classes, democracy came across as a hallmark of civilization and liberty. If you can imagine, history got a pretty superficial treatment in elementary school, so coming into Uni I more or less assumed that democracy was the perfect governmental system.

However, that was before I learned about the other types of government, and historically, what “worked” and what didn’t. Now, I feel, I can analyze democracy with a bit less bias.

So. Good stuff about democracy: The common people have a say in things, there’s an emphasis on equality, and (in theory) the person who makes the tough, pressing decisions will make the “right” ones in the public’s eyes, because the public decided that that person was fit to make said decisions.

However, one glance at America’s past few decades, or indeed, one glance at today’s headlines, confirms that our system of government leaves something to be desired. Major leaders are elected by public votes only every four or six years — that’s plenty of time for the legislator to change the opinions that the voters wanted to see instilled in the lawmaking process.

Another disturbing trend is that many of our elections have been, and are, to put it very un-eloquently, a [expletive] joke. Voters can be influenced by the most trivial and baseless things.

For example, negative campaign ads. One candidate isn’t quite satisfied with their chances, so they put together a commercial, setting out to prove that their opponent is immoral, inexperienced, weak-minded, and/or incompetent, using grainy black-and-white footage, out-of-context decisions, and unflattering character descriptions, all outlined by an ominous-sounding voice that sounds like it was provided by the guy who narrates the previews for horror films.

This is where our quote comes in. People, it can be said with some certainty, are dumb. A lot of people’s election decisions are going to be influenced by this commercial. Then, what choice does the opponent have but to make a similar commercial — besides, you know, being mature. Pssh. If someone made fun of you in kindergarten, the easiest way to get them off your back would be to fight fire with fire. Apply similar logic in today’s uninformed, celebrity-obsessed society that cares as much about charisma and personality in a candidate as opinions and values.

In certain areas of America during the last round of elections, a certain political party decided to take advantage of the relative isolation of said areas and claim that their opponents wanted to do something along the lines of banning professional sports and alcohol. That’s just one example of the underhanded tactics used by politicians everywhere to scrape up a few more votes.

Even if voters make all the right decisions, which they don’t, the actual voting system still leaves some breathing room for fate. Such as the electoral college.

“Make the Electoral College come alive! Divide your entire school into 50 groups of varying sizes. Then assign a point value to each group roughly based on its size. Have each individual student then vote on an issue — say, “chocolate or vanilla.” Tally the votes but tell them the side with the most votes isn’t necessarily the winner. Instead, calculate the winner within each of the 50 groups, then give the previously assigned point values and see who has more. Isn’t this a better way to figure out a winner?” — “America: the Book”

A majority of voters wanted Al Gore to be the president in 2000. More people in Florida wanted Gore to be the president. Oops. We seem to have lost thousands of ballots in a Democratic area. Well, there’s no use asking questions or standing up for your rights. Let’s not be hasty. Incidentally, how do you feel about voting machines with no pesky paper trail?

Finally, if the voters select the right people (which they don’t), and the votes are counted in a reasonable manner (which they aren’t), the legislators have four to six years to break as many promises and regulations as they can without getting impeached. I don’t need to give examples here, do I?

Of course, I am extremely fortunate to be living in a democratic nation. I take freedom of speech and the like for granted, and I feel rather selfish right now complaining about all of this. However, if people have the right to complain, what do you think they’re going to do?

Wrapping this up: We really only need figures like the president for immediate decisions and international relations. The long-term stuff should be voted on, and if the public makes bad decisions, you have to trust that they’ll learn from their mistakes. Still holding my breath here.

— Andrew Lovdahl