Every election season brings the predictable: “Go vote, do your part, make your voice heard” nagging message.
But somewhere along the way, casting a ballot became the beginning and the end of it. Tap a few names, feed the paper, post a picture of the sticker on your shirt. Civic duty complete.
That habit is exactly how uninformed voters are created, and uninformed voters create lots of problems.
These voters have a ritual of picking someone they know almost nothing about. They tend to vote based on the R or D next to a name. Or worse, they decide at the last minute because a friend, an organization, a politician, or a fancy mailer told them who the “conservative” choice is.
That’s surface-level participation, and it’s one reason we keep sending people into office who misbehave, abandon what they campaigned on, vote against their constituents, and get reelected over and over again.
Election Day comes and goes. Your pick wins. You go back to life.
Meanwhile, the people who want something from that newly elected official are waiting for the voter to go back to sleep.
Meet His New Friends
Contract lobbyists, trade associations, agency directors, caucus leadership, consultants. All of them are ready to bring the newly elected under their control. Voters who stop paying attention the minute they leave the polls are the fuel that keeps it running.
Here’s what your winner walks into. Caucus leadership sits the freshman down and explains how things get done around here. Which bills to co-sign, which committee chairman not to cross, and who to obey. The lobbyists rush in, showering him with lunch, dinners, and handing over policy language neatly drafted for him, which is a real favor when you’ve got no staff and forty bills not to read. Industry associations throw fundraisers, so he knows who to think about when their bill comes up. And the agency directors begin to show up with budget briefings begging for more tax dollars to fix their problems.
Are you starting to see where His New Friends get their advantage?
Meanwhile, the uninformed voter casts his vote and goes back to sleep.
That’s why the officeholder misbehaves. He quickly learns who’s watching, understands that the uninformed voter won’t look at his voting record or ask him a hard question, and will vote for him again regardless.
His New Friends, on the other hand, notice everything he does. They shower him with money, access, and the sense that he’s finally somebody. And they’ll take all of it back the minute he votes the wrong way. So he won’t dare cross them.
Your Civic Duty is to Become an Informed Voter
Your responsibility runs from the ballot through everything that follows. If you helped put someone in office, watch what he does in office.
Read the bills he sponsors, and then check what he votes yes on, because those are two different lists and the gap between them tells you something. Look at the recorded vote instead of the summary in his newsletter. A lot of what gets decided happens in a subcommittee room with fifteen chairs, so sit in on one sometime. Watch the budget. He voted to grow spending; find out what he got for it. When a bill he’s pushing shows up, ask who benefits, who wrote it, and who’s paying for the push.
We at ConservaTruth spend most of our time on the General Assembly, since state law sets the rules every county, city, and school district operates under. Uninformed voters fill those seats too, though, and watching a county council member takes the same work as watching a senator.
A couple of hours a month covers most of that, which is a smaller price than living under whatever gets passed while nobody’s looking.
Keep watching, because His New Friends are.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute legal or professional advice. ConservaTruth assumes no liability for any actions taken based on this content. Read more.
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