The final days of the pamphlet-pushing party loyalists haranguing me on Turlington Plaza to vote for their candidate in the impending Student Government election are upon us. They do a marvelous job, those pamphlet pushers, because once again I'm devoting another 500 words to their collective cause.
As I expressed last week, our officials in SG can't be taken very seriously when only 10 to 15 percent of their constituents vote them into office. Consequentially, if no one really votes for them, then what power do they truly hold?
The position becomes a vanity, a simple check on a resume, a mere pre-audition before stepping into the discerning glares of Simon, Paula, and Randy, aka the voting populace of local and even state politics.
But those are all valid reasons to run, as long as you keep your constituents views close to heart. Together, they manage more than $14 million for thousands of UF students. Nearly everything you touch or come across as a student at UF has some affiliation with SG. Regional Transit System buses? SG. Funding for the litany of student organizations? SG. Gov. Sarah Palin was qualified for the vice presidency on fewer responsibilities!
So why, then, do so few of us vote?
Besides our notorious laziness as college students and the lack of online voting, the most salient reason why so few will vote in the next two days is that there are scarcely any ideological differences between the parties. Ideological differences are what make American politics entertaining. Who cares about the issues and proposed solutions when we can bicker over abortion and the differences between conservative and liberal ideologies?
Arguably, the same holds true for politics at the university level. Few voters care about who came up with the idea of converting the UF Web mail system to Gmail first, or whose idea it was to propose a new parking garage for students. Instead, most of us concern ourselves with the petty bickering between the parties - an art that in this election cycle the Orange and Blue Party has perfected, leaving the Unite Party to rise above the trifling fray.
Most of us engaged enough to vote aren't driven to the polls because of the issues, but because of the screaming headlines on this very paper that alert us to the manifold of election complaints filed by the parties each week.
In this ideological vacuum, what's left but petty discourse? Perhaps Alligator columnist Johnathan Lott was correct last Thursday when he endorsed "your friend" for the election. Who else can you vote for when one or more parties change or emerge each cycle? Ideas are cheap, but political theatrics sell.
I can only hope that in the wake of President Barack Obama's historic campaign, which shook hundreds of thousands of young Americans out of our natural politically apathetic state, this SG election will see a higher turnout than in years past.
I wouldn't mind seeing some vindication for the Turlington Plaza pamphlet-pushers, and I think I'll miss their determined countenance come Thursday. For my other alternative is another cockeyed and anonymous angry preacher damning me to eternal hellfire as I walk to class.
Matthew Christ is a political science freshman. His column appears on Mondays.
