The Ultimate South Park and Philosophy (25 page)

In polls held after the 2000 presidential election was resolved, many people thought that the voters had little to say in nominating presidential candidates and in the final selection of the chief executive. We might write this sentiment off as being due to the controversial ballot counting in Florida and the contentious court proceedings that ultimately upheld the initial results, giving the state’s electoral votes—and the presidency—to George W. Bush. Political commentators, however, are able to point to more general reasons for this disillusionment. They include the fact that the elections are often decided by millions of votes (at least in terms of the popular vote), the way in which the Electoral College separates actual voters from the process of determining the new president, the length of the process, and the many ways in which the elections can be contested. There’s also widespread uncertainty about the counting of the votes, with some estimates saying that as many as 3% of the ballots cast nationwide during the 2000 election were invalidated because of some irregularity.
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Stan’s also left feeling that his vote didn’t matter, given that his candidate lost by a margin of 1410 votes to 36. His father disagrees, and his mother says that you can’t judge the validity of an election by whether or not a given candidate wins. Still, Stan’s helplessness is felt, as we just saw, by millions of voters. Considering the size of winning margins, we might understandably feel as if our votes didn’t matter in landslides, but this can also be true of close races. Logically speaking, very few races are so close—that is, tied or won by a one-vote margin—so that a single vote can actually change the outcome.

Whether or not your individual vote matters in elections decided by large margins, the role of the Electoral College further alienates many voters.
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The Electoral College is the system created by the Founders to elect an individual to the presidency. The decision is based on groups of electors, who are chosen by each political party that gains a large enough share of the vote. The percentages of electors are determined by the majority popular vote in each state. The number of electors assigned to each state is equal to the number of representatives in the House and Senate, with the exception of Washington DC, whose electors are based on their population.
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Currently, 48 states award
all
of the Electoral College votes to the candidate that won a simple ­plurality of the votes in that state.

In fact, presidential candidates now run two different types of ­campaigns. The “sure thing” states receive little attention or fanfare while the “swing” states get saturated with ads and appearances by the candidates. According to political scientist Thomas Patterson, “Residents of competitive states are exposed to a vigorous campaigning … Residents of other states get to see only part of the campaign, and their votes are discounted, which diminishes their interest in going to the polls.”
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Because most presidential elections boil down to roughly ten “battleground” states such as Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, potential voters in other states may be less motivated to take action, both in terms of campaign volunteering or voting. No other large democracy uses an Electoral College system to select its head of state, and most other democracies don’t delegate the authority to individual states in order to decide the national executive, but instead conduct the election on a national level, with uniform balloting procedures.
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It’s not uncommon to hear that the American voter’s growing apathy is due to a feeling of powerlessness. In essence, the Electoral College turns more than half of the country into mere spectators.

The Electoral College is just one of America’s
disincentives to vote
. These disincentives—or the costs of voting to the potential voter—include early network projections on election night declaring who’s won the election before many polls have even closed. Early poll closing times are another factor, with 26 states requiring people to vote before 7:30 p.m. Estimates seem to show that turnout in these states is 3% lower than in states whose polls close at 8:00 p.m. or later. Beyond this, the complicated voter registration process, which is handled independently by each state, also confuses the matter for many. The frequency and number of elections in the United States, including primaries, general elections, run-offs, midterms, odd-year locals, and special elections, is said to lead to “voter fatigue.” Furthermore, the fact that elections are held on Tuesdays instead of on holidays or weekends (unlike many other democracies) further compounds the problem.
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We owe John Locke (1632–1704), one of the most influential ­philosophers of all time, a debt for introducing to political philosophy the inalienable rights to life and liberty that are so much a part of our founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence. In his
Second Treatise of Government
, Locke argued that political authority comes from the consent of the people. If Locke is correct, isn’t voting the primary avenue for granting consent? When Stan refuses to vote for one of the two new school mascots, in essence he’s rejecting the authority of both of the candidates to represent him. Although Stan might be alone in his protest in South Park, he’s joined by nearly half of all Americans eligible to vote every presidential year—and by nearly two-thirds during midterm elections.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) would likely have agreed with Locke and so he’d see the trend of more people choosing not to cast ballots as particularly problematic. Ahead of his time, Mill argued for granting suffrage to under-represented and non-represented groups, arguing that voting deepens community interconnectedness and involvement, and also provides greater legitimacy to political institutions themselves. Mill said that for these institutions, at “every stage of their existence they are made what they are by human voluntary agency … It needs, not their simple acquiescence, but their active participation.”
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For Mill, the case of tens of millions of Americans simply not being motivated to get involved in the process is worthy of close inspection.

Mill’s primary concern was the protection of individual liberty. In his essay
On Liberty
, Mill argued that political systems need to ­represent the interests of the people yet not fall prey to the “tyranny of the majority.” This is what often happens when the majority sees its view as right regardless of how unjust the consequences might be to minorities. Mill based his political philosophy on the simple premise that government should never interfere with the liberty of individuals unless interference is needed to prevent harm to others. These basic limits would help foster liberty, but Mill wouldn’t have favored limits that discouraged individuals from participating in the selection of their representatives.
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Although in the US people feel free to choose not to vote, Stan feels immense pressure from both his family and friends. When Stan originally declares he isn’t going to vote, Kyle reminds him of Puff Daddy’s “Vote or Die” campaign, mimicking the real Sean “Puff Daddy” Comb’s T-shirt campaign to get young voters involved. In the world of
South Park
, Puff Daddy and his posse immediately rush to the scene to ­convince Stan of the importance of his vote. Puff Daddy particularly emphasizes the “die” option by whipping out a gun from his back pocket, cocking it, and pointing it squarely at Stan. The threats of violence from Puff Daddy, as well as the decision by the people of South Park to banish Stan from the town for not voting, mirror the social pressure, rather than a sense of civic duty, that motivates many people to vote.
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“Vote or Die” and other campaigns like “Rock the Vote” tend to be directed at younger voters. There’s good reason for this, as citizens who lived through great national crises like World War II and the Cold War are slowly being replaced by the X and Millennial (sometimes referred to as Y) generations. Older generations are seen as more civic-minded due to their life experiences, but potential X- and Y-gen voters tend to be more private and individualistic, and are less tied to traditional conceptions of civic duty, especially political activism. A lot of data support these claims: in 1972, the voting rate of adults under 30 years hovered around 50%, yet it was barely above 30% by the 2000 election.
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While the numbers did increase to near their 1972 levels in the 2004 election, the states that showed the largest jump in under-30 voting were the battleground states discussed above. This shows that youth in neglected states still aren’t going to the polls in overwhelming numbers. Even in the 2008 election, which continued a recent upward trend in presidential election turnout, with 62.2% of the voting-eligible population voting, we still saw over 80 million eligible voters simply choose not to go to the polls (and 2012 could be as low as 61% according to some projections). Midterm, primary, and local elections still maintain much poorer turnout percentages.

Stan is plagued by people telling him to vote only because they believe he’ll vote for their mascot. Kyle tells Kenny, “We have got to make Stan understand the importance of voting, because he’ll definitely vote for our guy.” At one point, after Puff Daddy’s first intervention, Stan temporarily decides to cast a vote, a move cheered on by Kyle until he realizes that Stan is actually voting for Cartman’s candidate. Kyle criticizes Stan’s decision, and Stan replies, “I thought I was supposed to make my own decision.” Kyle responds, “Well yeah, but not if your decision is for Turd Sandwich! What the hell is wrong with you?” Cartman also seems to take politicking to the extreme as he and Butters use candy to try and sway undecided voters, including Clyde, to their Turd Sandwich candidate. He even offers to help Stan vote, promising a steak dinner after the process is completed. Stan resists this ploy, though, and refuses to be manipulated into making a choice.

Not even kindergartners are safe from pressure and tricks. In the episode “Trapper Keeper” the class is called upon to elect a new class president, but a stalemate ensues when Flora is unable to choose between Filmore and Kyle’s little brother, Ike. The vote is tied at six each, and Mr. Garrison tells Flora that she will cast the winning vote. He can’t read her hand-written ballot, so he asks her whom she picked. When Flora says that she doesn’t know, Mr. Garrison forces the issue, telling her that she has to pick one. As Flora tries to decide, the other kids argue, trying to get her to cast her deciding vote for their pick. The situation escalates when Rosie O’Donnell, Filmore’s aunt, comes on the scene to help make sure “that the kids that voted for my nephew don’t get cheated,” and calls for recount after recount. Mr. Garrison stands up to Rosie: “Half the kids in the class didn’t vote for your nephew, so what about them? You don’t give a crap about them because they’re not on your side!” In the end, Filmore drops out because he doesn’t want to play the stupid game anymore, letting Ike become class president. Ike promptly declares that he pooped his pants, and the class begins to finger-paint.

Stan’s resistance to voting has mainly to do with his feelings about the two candidates. In the end he admits “I learned that I’d better get used to having to pick between a douche and a turd sandwich because it’s usually the choice I’ll have.” Perhaps if Stan or Flora didn’t feel that their choices were limited to those two options, they might feel more inclined to vote. In American politics, there are alternate choices represented by third parties (including the Green, Libertarian, Constitution, and Natural Law parties), but these options are usually not seen as legitimate. The games of presidential politics are dominated by the two major parties, given how elections are structured in terms of winner-takes-all and how debates are closed to other parties.

The debates are controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which was created in 1987 with the support of the two major parties. The rules of the Commission require that a third-party candidate must perform strongly in the polls, must possess strong organizational resources, and must be seen as having a viable cam­paign with a realistic chance of winning the election in order to be included in the televised debates. This policy begs key questions about what “viable” campaigns and “realistic” chances are. It’s these rules that excluded Ross Perot from the 1996 debates, even though he had an impressive showing in the previous election.
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Ralph Nader has also had great difficulty with the Commission, and he was excluded from the debate process even though some believe that his Green Party candidacy may have swung the election away from Al Gore in 2000.
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Stan’s choice between the douche and the turd is captured in a song played as he finally votes:

Let’s get out the vote!
Let’s make our voices heard!
We’ve been given the right to choose
between a douche and a turd.

It’s democracy in action!
Put your freedom to the test.
A big fat turd or a stupid douche.
Which do you like best?

This distasteful duality of choice is even more troublesome for voters who see their vote as a type of self-expression or self-definition. According to political scientists Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky, “If individuals do genuinely vote merely as an act of self-expression … Surely individuals need a larger repertoire of political positions than two in order to define themselves and/or express their political affections.”
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Our two-party system appears to have too little room for third parties. But if we attempted election reform along the lines of a proportional representation system (instead of winner-take-all), third parties might get more attention. In a proportional representation system, the percentage of votes received by a party determines the percentage of seats they obtain in the legislature. Even if proportional representation were only applied to the Electoral College system, so that the percentage of the vote in each state would translate into the fraction of electoral votes received for that candidate, more people might be less alienated by the election process.