PSA Response

This video is exactly what I don’t want to see in PSAS. For one the graphics suggest that the video was part of a get out and vote campaign from the 1984 Regan/Mondale election. Call me shallow, but when people go for the “average American” look in PSA’s don’t pick real average Americans. These are the people who I wouldn’t trust with calculating my order at a drive through Wendy’s, let alone the morality of voting. I would like to see videos with people who I would listen to. I don’t really care what the average American thinks about voting, I want to be persuaded by someone who I can learn something from. If a pundit, or someone educated was speaking about the truth to voting and why elections are important I would take it seriously.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/273575/vote_use_it_or_lose_it/

What is an American?

An American to me is really anyone who resides within our borders. I can’t say that Americans are smarter, braver, or nobler than the rest of the world, many in the public spotlight should answer why. I can say that Americans are defined by our diversity. What I love about this country is the idea that in theory, we have the same opportunity to fail as we do to succeed. We are in the end, just people. Some of us are extraordinary and some of us are extraordinarily bad. Most of us fall in the middle. Saying that we are “freeder” than anyone else is something that clearly only Bush and his cronies believe. I am proud to be an American because we are not defined by anything but the lack of a definition. Illegal immigrants are just as American as anyone else here. I hate to be a pretentious liberal, but what is legal? Look back to our country’s formation. Where African slaves treated as legal Americans? Where the Native Americans treated as legal Americans? Where women treated as legal Americans? No, so stop complaining about the immigrants who clean your house because you would rather play fantasy football and support the war from a safe distance, you know, one where you don’t really have to do anything.

Would/will you vote?

I have seen a lot of things have really destroyed my faith in democracy. Well, my faith in American democracy. All these problems I have witnessed seem to have roots in the same issue, lack of voter participation/awareness. If I where to give up on our system, I would only be contributing to an already massive problem. We as Americans don’t know what it is like to not have democracy, [or at least something better than whatever Kim Jong Il claims to be]. We assume that just because we are used to it, it will never change. The reality is, without voters democracy becomes hijacked by people like Carl Rove. We can’t blame corporate fat-cats and special interest groups for taking more than their fair share. That’s what they do, and if citizens did what they where supposed to do we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. I will vote, and so should everyone else. Together we can assure that the last 8 years are the past and whoever is elected has their feet held to the fire like our forefathers intended.