Opinion
The Battalion Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1988
Voter’s Guide not Constituents must educate
meant to persuade themselves before election
In Monday’s Voters’ Guide, a listing was given of the views of George
Bush and Michael Dukakis on the issues concerning defense, for
eign, economic and domestic policies. The Battalion has received
several calls inquiring about the partisanship of the guide. The Vot
ers’ Guide was neither an endorsement nor a paid advertisement for
either candidate. The guide, compiled from information from the
American Freedom Coalition, was an attempt to provide an overview
of the presidential candidates’ opinions on the issues and was not
meant as a push for either candidate. We used the information from
the AFC because it was the most complete source to which we had
access. The AFC is prohibited by law from being a partisan organiza
tion, and The Battalion has declined from endorsing either party
The Battalion Voters’ Guide was not published to tell you how to
vote, but rather to inform you of the issues and the candidates’ views.
We apologize if that purpose was lost because of how the informa
tion was presented.
The Battalion Editorial Board
No endorsements
from Batt editors
As the above editorial mentioned, The Battalion’s editorial board de
cided not to endorse a presidential, or any other candidate, in today’s
ection. By keeping abreast of current events, issues and political
stances, we have tried to educate ourselves about who would be the
most appropriate leaders for our country. And at the same time,
we’ve tried to help our readers do the same by covering as many po-
tical races and candidates as possible and by offering a free flow of
ideas on the Opinion Page.
However, we would not feel comfortable advising our peers on)
how to use their vote. But we do feel comfortable encouraging stu
dents, faculty and staff to exercise their right to vote.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Get out and vote. Exercise your con
stitutional right. Do your civic duty and
vote! Make a difference in how this
country is run. Don’t be apathetic. Use
your political “clout,” make sure your
voice is heard and get out the vote! Take
an active role. Ensure your right to com
plain when the candidate of your choice
isn’t elected and the opposing party
hurls the country into an abyss of de
struction, chaos and decidedly bad eco
nomic and foreign policy. Be patriotic:
show concern for the nation’s future
and get out the vote.
On and on and on, the list of reasons
— all admirable, of course — professing
why you should vote goes on . Today,
voter, is the day youcan make a differ
ence. You know what I say to that?
“Hogwash, and here’s why.”
A few days ago, I heard someone
make what many would consider a
shocking (but nevertheless insightful)
remark, “Don’t vote. If you’re stupid,
don’t vote!” Certainly this is in direct op
position to the multitude of reasons why
you should vote, hut this statement goes
a long way in summing up the reasons
why you shouldn’t vote: beingstupid.
Voter, you’re stupid (perhaps igno
rant is a better term here) if you vote
just for the sake of doing it. Everyone
else votes, everyone else urges you to do
it and you’re a communist if you don’t.
Besides, it’s the sign of being an adult,
of making responsible decisions, of
exercising your constitutional right,
blah, blah, blah. Join the bandwagon,
succumb to peer, parental, political or
whatever pressure is applied in convinc
ing you to vote. After all, it’s for the
good of the country!
No, it isn’t! Especially if you’re “issue
Suna
Purser
Columnist
Universi
Bfeesearch expi
mk fiscal year I
lowed the candidates and their .cfed $245 milli<
paigns, and whether they’re n s University offi<
wrong, the informed voter, is abj^ encc Monday
I ho cr ime 'i 1110 ranl '
h< I ■utions in the ;
And voter, you really dkfstJNaiional Science
you vote straight party becauseBfigures from t
family has voted a straight DemoJ'jb.■ 31 show a
Republican tic ket since the beginriij™ 1 '' 011 .' 1 ’
time, the Republicans or Dei: jgy SK . m
alwav.saccurately reflect my
Uthough stil
ignorant.” You’re stupid if you vote in
ignorance. What I mean by this is: Can
you make an intelligent and well-
thought out choice? Do you know what
the issues are and have you studied
them? What is your position on defense,
foreign, domestic and economic policy?
What are the candidates’ positions on
these issues? Does Candidate A, regard
less of party affiliation, address the is
sues more in line with your position
than does Candidate B? What effects
will Candidate A’s policy have, as op
posed to Candidate B’s, on the issues,
our country, our citizens and the United
States’ role as a “world leader?”
[sity should re
If your answer to any of these ques
tions is, “I don’t know,” you’re issue ig
norant and don’t belong at the polls.
Stay home, eat bon-bons and watch tele
vision. Do the well-informed and issue
intelligent voters a favor — don’t cancel
out their votes, whether they’re “right”
or “wrong” — by casting a vote when
you don’t even know what the issues are,
much less where you and the candidates
stand on those issues.
Whether the informed voters make a
“bad” or “good” decision is a matter of
perspective, but at least they know what
the election is all about and have made
an intelligent choice. They have fol-
ideologies <>i I in nnl !anuli;in\| preliminary, the
these candidates, so I'll vote stnjvary little from
party because the Democ rats orRfMB cn complete!
licans usually represent mv politic
■the A&M h
In any given election, straightpjcluded in forthco
balloting may not be the best orvB based on the
choice. You don’t have to look national c
find extremists in all political paFTTjf 16 ~ tl11
s * -'I du.ns u- lei of eft*^^ NSF
others will always be right of right | ude research ex
Casting a straight party ballot>;r| s ^ e °* science t
because it’s a hunih nadition oniPj™ ma y not
i n i i i dollars counted
Other equally absurd reason <> ( ®y NSF offiri . lK
ways mean you’re electing the besi^&M administ
didate for the job. Eet down you
facade: study and vote for the:
dates who will best serve the city,si
nation, regardless of party affiliatid
In essence, it comes to this: be
sponsible, well-informed voter. U
standing the issues, the candidate!
their stands on the issues takes til
tience and concentration — thing!
of us don’t want to waste on somi
as mundane as politics and el
And if you choose not to understami
issues and candidates, so be it
fine. Just do the nation a favor and
in the glow of ignorance at your
house and not at the election polls
Suna Purser is a journalism
uate, a graduate student in English
columnist for The Battalion.
Byjacq
Researchers ai
ledical “whodu
,ts holding the I
Cat scratch d
terinarians an<
ars, Dr. John I
August, a ve
nail animal me
A&M Vel
id the disease
ars, but that tf
sease were dis
ople who have
“It’s a historic
Texas
Maybe we should be forced to vote — or stop complaining
have known abc
lily been iden
ears,” he said.
CSD is a ba
lansmitted to h
Today we’re supposed to vote. Today
we can exercise pur Constitutional right
to pick the next leader of our country.
Today we must choose between two no
ble men who have worked their way to
the top of their respective political par
ties and now are one step away from be
ing the most powerful individual in
America.
Or we can sleep late.
We can completely ignore the el
ementary schools and churches where
ballot boxes are set up. We can wait and
turn on the 5:30 national news to find
that journalists Jiave already correctly
predicted the winner of the election.
Then we can wait for the new president
to take office in January and watch him
screw up.
This will lead to complaints about the
government, about the party in power,
which leads to anarchy in the streets, a
violent overthrow of the government
and the downfall of American society.
In a last ditch power attempt, we
launch a full-scale nuclear assault
<s)/98Q f<ARi~ Spence
BRY/)n , TEXAS*
against the Soviet Union, which results
in the destruction of the Earth (several
times with our current capabilities) and
leaves nothing but a race of cockroaches
which eventually will evolve and go
through the same HELL we’ve just ex
perienced.
And it’s all because you wanted to
sleep late.
So how come the greatest nation in
the world, the place where we let the
voices of our enemies speak (as long as
they don’t talk about anarchy in the
Steve
Masters
Columnist
t
streets or the steps that follow), a place
where you can get donuts 24 hours a
day, a place where a raving madman can
scream obscenities and call it a talk
show, how come we don’t vote?
Because we were up all night getting
donuts and listening to Morton Downey
J r?
I think it’s much deeper than that.
(Get ready for The Voter Revelation.)
I think we’re too lazy. I think that just
because the polls don’t come to you, you
don’t bother. Right? Right.
We need some motivation. The Soviet
Union has over a 95 percent voting rate,
the highest in the world. We need to be
told to vote. We need pressure and
stress, like our boss standing there
breathing down your neck saying,
“TWO MINUTES TO DEADLINE!
YOUR FIRST BORN WILL BE
MINE!” (Boy, I sure hate editors.)
We apparently can’t respond to vot
ing unless it’s a requirement, so let’s
make it a law. Forget the war on drugs.
Let’s hear it for the war on non-voters!
All we need is Nancy Reagan in the
Red Dress® making her plea to “Just Go
Vote.”
With this method we wouldn’t even
need to register. Save time and money,
right? Right. I knew you’d see it my way.
Instead of registering or bothering to
remember when the elections are, we
could just form some militant organiza
tion (like the Corps or the PLO) to
round people up on voting day, put
them in cattle cars, take them to the
polls and, at gunpoint, watch them vote.
How much could a cattle car cost any-
AT LONG LAST
way:
It only gets expensive when you
those ignorant protestors who w
rather be shot than vote for presidi
(Although I’d bet there’d bequitea
bullets taken over the choice we us®
have — take this year, for examp!
short Cheek or a Republican. “Um
cuse me, sir? Did you say that wasa
or a .45?”) But bullets don’t cost
either.
Then they could just hold elect*
whenever they raised enough me
for the transportation. But there
drawbacks.
With the Republicans in power
would require deficit-spending
viously not a high priority with voi
now) without new taxes (“Who!
that? Blasphemy! Off with his Id
ue!”), so it would take longer toacf
the money necessary. With the Dei
crats in power, there would be t#
taxes, but welfare recipients wot
thrive, so the population would end
much larger and more money would
necessary for transportation.
Of course, after a while, count
votes would become obsolete. Who*
is in office could just pick the nextf
(or girl — maybe we’ll be liberated
ists) and we could roll right along
sure the party in power would be
traordinarily fair and use infalli
judgment before selecting itself toi
for another term.
By this time though, revolution in
Soviet Union would have turned tl*
around to a republican form of gotf
merit. China would follow suit and
would be alone in our oppressive
ciety. We woidd try the last ditch po»
play and end up nuking the world.
So our choice is that we destroy®
selves while enjoying our freedomot
destroy ourselves without freedom
am known widely for my optimism
don’t think that decision is tootougli
As for me, just wake me upwhenl
5:30 news comes on.
Steve Masters is a senior journf
major, senior staff writer and a coin 1
nist for The Battalion.
Mens
Lai
Texa:
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The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Lydia Berzsenyi, Editor
Becky Weisenfels, Managing Editor
Anthony Wilson, Opinion Page Editor
Richard Williams, City Editor
D AJensen,
Denise Thompson, News Editors
Hal Hammons, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Leslie Guy, Entertainment Editor
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BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathe
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