How To Be Successful In Politics 101

Some of you have been asking me when I’ll be finished with my “choose your own adventure” story.  Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to work on it much, but I’ll try to finish it this week.  Thanks for your interest.

In the meantime, I want to comment about a story I heard on the radio this morning about the Arizona Voter Reward Act.  In an attempt to increase voter turnout in Arizona, this legislation proposes that everyone who votes will automatically be entered into a lottery for a chance to win a million dollars.

NY Times article link   About.com article link

I’ve always said that the key to success in politics is to assume that people are lazy and stupid.  But now I have to add one more thing… assuming that people are greedy.  And actually, this legislation combines all three of these characteristics, so in effect, it’s the perfect piece of legislation.  First of all it assumes that the reason people don’t vote is because they lack incentive to get off their lazy butts and take a half an hour out of one day every two to four years to vote.  Then it assumes that people are stupid enough to believe that their chances are pretty high of winning the lottery – or at least enough to get off their lazy butts to go and vote.  Lastly, it assumes that people are only motivated by money and thus can be duped into stupidly believing that this will benefit them enough to get off their lazy butts to go and vote.  And the thing is… these are all very good assumptions.  It’s the elusive “tri-fecta,” and it all points to a very sad state of affairs.

Also, this isn’t just limited to politics.  Hollywood and businesses take advantage of this fact as well.  But it especially turns my stomach when politicians use it to advance their agendas because where with Hollywood and business it’s understood that their responsibility is only to themselves for the most part – to make as much money as possible, politicians are supposed to be public servants… looking out for the interests of the populace.  It’s almost a betrayal, in my opinion.

I have so many problems with this legislation, that I scarcely know where to begin, but I will try…

First, I personally think the only thing worse than a non-voter is a completely uneducated voter.  By this I don’t mean someone without an advanced degree.  I mean someone who hasn’t taken the time to even briefly review the platforms and issues on which they will vote.  I think that by offering a financial incentive to vote, it will create more voters who will simply vote either randomly or blindly down a party line and thus weaken the votes of people who actually care about the issues and candidates.  Some may even go so far as to say that this artificially creates more votes for a certain party because the segment of the population who would be motivated by this type of reward usually votes with that party.  While I believe there is some validity to this argument, I think there are many other things that push the scales in either direction in that way – whether it be polling locations, district zoning, transportation, and the like.  But I would like to keep this rant as non-partisan as possible.

Secondly, I think using a lottery as incentive is clearly taking advantage of the general population’s ignorance of how unlikely it is to win.  If any of you know me, one of my greatest pet peeves is people who take advantage of another’s ignorance for their gain.  As the numbers in the article show, you are 400 times more likely to get struck by lightning and dying than to win that lottery.  “But Nathan,” you might say, “that’s still not impossible.”  Well, let’s put it this way… instead of thinking about being struck by lightning… how likely do you think it is that you would actually know 400 different people who were struck by lightning and killed?  Do you personally know even one for that matter?

Third, I can think hundreds of uses for a million dollars that would be better than rewarding some random person for doing what’s supposed to be their civic duty.  I know that the money is from unclaimed lottery winnings and would not come out of the taxes of the residents, but why couldn’t that money be used for things like the foster care program or homeless shelters?  Personally, I think lottery money is blood money.  Most of its victims are people who should be saving their money for health care, food, and other necessities.  It helps create thousands of poorer poor while creating one incredibly rich person.  What does it say about our society when we give vast riches to one person who drove a few miles, waited in line for 5 minutes, and punched a few holes in a card while millions of people can’t even afford basic health care?

And finally, I think it really loses sight of what the real purpose is for trying to increase voter turn-out, which is to get people actively involved in the democratic process.  As someone in the article states, all this does is give someone the ability to point to the number of people who came out to vote and make it seem like a success.  But are these voters people who are truly interested in the democratic process, or are they really only doing it for self-gain (actually, only potential self-gain)?  Have we created any more concerned citizens or only rewarded selfish behavior?  Are we setting a precedence for expecting the population to only do their civic duty if there is a potential, immediate monetary reward?