I read a heart touching story the other day in the Taranaki Daily News about a group of hairdressers who had made it their goal to get everyone they knew enrolled and ready to vote come election time. One part of me smiled because democracy is all about getting involved and voting, but the other part of me cried. I cried because, and I know this is just playing into the hands of a stereotype but, hairdressers… really? They even said in the article that they knew nothing about policy… so I thought, why do we let all people vote?
The current state of media in New Zealand is a major reason why you should not be voting. They give us sound bites, they give us worms (I suggest de-worming NZ media), they do not give us analysis and they are biased with their own agendas. Because of the parochial nature of ratings based news media we cannot expect people who think they’re politically informed because they watch the six o’clock news and Campbell Live to actually have a sense of what is going on.
The bare skin and bones of it is that in a democracy we supposedly each have a say in the policy of the government. But if we’re too busy and there is no tangible incentive for each voter to do policy analysis the end product is bad policy. We vote on our passions, our biases and traditions, and sometimes we vote for no real reason at all, except that we’re told it is our civic duty.
Enfranchisement is the biggest sheepskin that politicians have ever pulled over our eyes. It is an opiate and makes us feel like we play a direct part in government when the truth is that we have very little say. I, as a citizen of New Zealand, have no direct input into Labour or National’s policy making process. Sure, I could join a party, but the rules of each party prohibit me from being a member of another party at the same time. The only way that I can get policy I want is to use the power of my one vote, one vote out of a couple of million. I align my vote with the party that has the most similar policy to what I want, but somewhere in the hubbub of all this voting my vote starts to lose its worth because I don’t get the policy outcomes I want, and neither do any of the other people who also vote.
Abstaining from voting because you know very little about politics is a perfectly worthy choice to make and if more people made that choice we would end up with better policy outcomes. Parties would have to start looking at their policies critically and making them appeal to those who have the time, and who want to put the effort into analysing them, because that is where the votes are. Abstaining does not preclude you from criticising the policies of any parties; if anything it frees up your time so you don’t have to worry about the politicking going on around you.
The Irish, of all people, have the right idea when it comes to reforming democracy. The Seanad Éireann of the Republic of Ireland is voted in by graduates of university and by nomination from specialist independent bodies.
The first thing we need to do is start teaching civics in schools. If we teach children about the system they live in they may continue their interest in later years. Secondly we need to make Parliament more accessible. Currently we can only walk around Parliament during a guided tour. Thirdly as a country we need put pressure on parties to provide us with substantive policy, and we need to put pressure on media outlets to analyse political goings on further than Winston’s Spencer Trust, and who made those tapes of Bill English.
Apathy rocks, so if you don’t want to vote, please don’t. If you think you’re vote doesn’t count you’re right, so please don’t vote. If you’re doing a BCA please don’t vote. If you’re uninformed please, please please don’t vote.