Wired has a piece today called Blogs Counter Political Plottings that talks about how social software like weblogs and social networking sites are increasing voter turnout. What caught my eye was this admission from Markos Moulitsas Zúniga:”In a traditional campaign, ‘you strip out all of the people you can’t control — to keep as many out of the process as possible,’ said Moulitsas.”
I’ve heard this before and touched on it briefly when talking about making election day a national holiday, but reading about it in Wired got me a little more pissed off. I tried to find some information to support the claim, but came up empty. Do campaigns actually admit to discouraging voters? If not, is anyone out there watching who is conspiring against voters?
I understand that lower voter turnout makes elections predictable, which is beneficial to both parties, however I think it’s deplorable that we are electing people who don’t want to hear what the people have to say. If we have to beg for a holiday from people who have a vested interest in keeping us from electing our own leaders, that says volumes about our republic.
Still, it makes voting more enjoyable if I know that I’m pissing off politicians.
One response to “Voter Discouragement Coming From Campaigns?”
Lower voter turnout disproportionately benefits Republicans (or has, historically). And while that’s a large part of many negative campaign ads, the goal is always to get a swing voter to vote for your guy. If you can’t have that, better to not have them vote at all, by discouraging their feelings of efficacy and making both sides seem bad.