Susan Estrich
Friday, Nov. 3, 2006

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This is what a majority of adult Americans will do on Tuesday:

Nothing.

Oh, they'll do what they do on Monday and Wednesday, or any other Tuesday, but what they won't do is vote.

And they'll have plenty of excuses as to why not.

They'll tell themselves that the two parties aren't so different, that none of the elections will be decided by one vote, that Tuesday is a ridiculous day for voting and that the whole system stinks.

And there's some truth to all of that.

Tuesday is a ridiculous day to vote. It dates back to the time when ours was an agrarian economy, and Tuesday made sense in terms of harvests and markets and all that; justifications which make no sense today. Then again, virtually every state has some version of early voting, permanent absentee status and the like. If you don't like Tuesday, it's easy to vote on Sunday or Monday these days. That dog don't hunt -- not anymore.

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The whole system does stink, and this year the smell has been particularly strong. This election should be about the war in Iraq. It should be about which party should control the Congress. It should be about important issues like the environment and health care, pressing issues where there are in fact real differences between the parties.

But in the closing days, all anyone seems to be talking about is whether John Kerry really did botch a joke or whether he actually meant what he said; whether Michael J. Fox's dramatic commercial was persuasive or over the top; whether having a white playmate say "call me Harold" in reference to an African-American man is racist or just inappropriate; whether George Allen's divorce records should be made public and how his goons' beat-up got captured on tape. James Carville may have been right, in a way, when he questioned whether, if the Democrats can't win now, they can ever win again. But these are individual mud matches fought on local terms, not national referenda on the state of the nation. The generic Democrat beats the generic Republican, but neither of them is running.

Money is pouring in like whodathunkit, with everyone covering bets as they do in a close election. Control of the House matters more, on a practical level, than a slim majority in the Senate. If Democrats take the House, they take real power. The contributions flowing in to both sides right now are a pittance of what it is worth. Those making them understand that well. They are not throwing their money away. They are spending it wisely. They would spend more if they could. The only thing stopping them is the law. Is the system systemically corrupt? How could it not be?

And it doesn't really matter whether you vote, rationally speaking. Sure, if everyone did this, the system would fall apart, but we're not talking about everyone doing it. We're only talking about you, one person. Any one person not voting doesn't matter, just one person.

GOTV, or Get Out The Vote, about which we hear so much, is really about embarrassing people into voting. You keep track of who votes, and you call those who don't so as to let them know you are watching, offer them a ride to the polls, etc. And if they haven't voted by 6 o' clock, you call them back. What happens is, they vote. They're embarrassed into it.

If you ask kids whether they plan to vote when they grow up, to a one they say yes. They understand that voting is part of being a good citizen, even if it takes place on Tuesday, even if it sometimes feels useless or inconvenient or cumbersome. The system may be inherently corrupt, but it's the one we have and the best there is. Participation is a right and a responsibility, a civic duty, a thing you do when you grow up, a privilege people fight and die for. Ask a kid. They get it. It's basic. And when you confront people head on, time to vote, they go. They remember.

Time to vote.

COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

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2006 Elections