If you attended any of the debate events last week, you would have noticed a lot of signs for one candidate or another parading around. They were at every taping of every political show, and in spin alley after the presidential debate; a sign war broke out every time a television camera was turned on.
Showing your support for a candidate via a sign is absolutely fine. It’s great that so many people on this campus have become involved in the political scene during this presidential election year. I saw one girl, who really couldn’t have been more than 17 years old, waving a Veterans for Bush sign. A friend remarked, “Her war wounds have healed nicely.” In fact, it seemed she had barely aged at all since ‘Nam. The point is that the sign fad last week was out of control. People have been hopping on the bandwagon and “getting political” just because it’s become trendy on campus.
At the taping of Chris Matthews’ “Hardball,” he came out into the crowd and started badgering students that were holding signs. Despite his slightly offensive terminology used to reference the occupants of the Wash U campus as “rich kids,” I thought it was great. I love Chris Matthews and I thought it was fantastic that he was questioning students bold enough to hold signs about the issues and why they supported one candidate or another.
The fact is, most people don’t know why they support one candidate over another. We often fall victim to living in our campus bubble, where no one has time to watch the news and get informed about the issues. To be honest, I don’t know that I would be brave enough to hold a Kerry sign, even though I do support him. I’m not completely knowledgeable about all of his platform ideas and I don’t know all his voting records, etc., but I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on what is going on in this campaign and why I think Kerry is the best choice.
I realize that the people Matthews picked on were unfairly put on the spot and that they were probably unprepared for such a barrage of loaded questions. At the same time, however, in Spin Alley and all over campus, people are holding signs to show the support that they may not even really understand. Before you pick up a sign, be clear about why you’re doing it.
According to a Rock the Vote representative, approximately 2,000 students on this campus have either registered to vote for the first time, or become a new Missouri voter. This fairly high number is spectacular, and it’s great that so many people are registered and capable of voting, and I would encourage them to do just that. However, a majority of political elections are decided by uninformed voters; the step after registering but before voting is up to you. It’s important to make an informed decision, not just a decision based on trends.
If you watch the Daily Show (and you should) it’s fairly obvious that John Stuart supports Kerry. Every news network (well except Fox News) has slightly less obvious liberal leanings. Out of all the signs held by students that I saw on campus, there were definitely more Kerry than Bush, which I feel accurately represents the political atmosphere on this campus. These are not, however, reasons to support Kerry. Support him because you like his ideas about what to do in Iraq, or his brilliant ideas for new government programs, or even just because you want to get rid of Bush. Registering to vote is not enough. You have to do it, and you have to make a choice based on factual evidence, not on what’s trendy.