The Voice

Issue date: 9/22/08 Section: Voices

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A few days ago, I asked the students in one of the classes I teach to raise their hands if they were registered to vote. Nearly every hand went up. This was a confirmation of one of this year's major political stories: the sharply increased participation of young people.

In nearly every state, registering is the gateway to voting, and I hope all of my registered students will actually vote. I write now to urge everyone to vote in a particularly careful way this year.

There is a great deal of evidence that more and more of us - especially young voters - do not strongly identify with a party. Such voters might label themselves as "independent" or describe their voting as "I vote for the person, not the party."

Independent voters need to do more work to learn about the policies of candidates than voters who are strongly party-oriented. But independents may be tempted to take a shortcut.

They may decide whom to vote for based on how they perceive a candidate's personality. "The candidate is a lot like me," or "There's just something about that candidate that I like," or "I can imagine having a beer with the candidate," may become major considerations.

But the personality that a candidate wishes us to see may not be the true personality. And even if it is, governing this republic is not a one-person show. We do not live in an autocratic, one-man rule nation. Even presidents are constrained. And not just by the other branches of government.

A president is also constrained by the wishes of the voters who put him into the White House. How will he try to retain their support? To whom will the new president owe favors? Whoever is sworn in on January 20 will be constrained. Even indebted.

Prior to naming Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain and his campaign were struggling. Enthusiasm, especially among the Republican "base" - angry cultural conservatives whose energy and effort brought us eight years of George W. Bush - was lacking. But the last few weeks have seen a spike in support for McCain in that base. It now seems that he could be the next president. And a good case could be made that he would owe his election to Palin's supporters.

Naturally, what the Republican culturally conservative base gives John McCain, they can take away. And McCain certainly knows this. As a candidate, he strives to distance himself from President Bush, portraying himself as a "maverick." However, as president, John McCain would be as much a captive of the far right conservatives as he was of the far left Communists when he was a POW in the "Hanoi Hilton."

And if Senator Obama wins, to whom do you think he'll owe his victory? To students and to young people, that's who. So, who'd you rather see a president indebted to?

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