"get out the vote"

The phrase, “get the vote out, “reminds me of extremely involved republicans or democrats. My best friend’s parents are proud democrats and when elections come around, the air is filled with political talk. The only shirts they wear during a political seasons are shirts like, “you bet your sweet ass I’m a democrat.” They wear these shirts so they can create conversation about voting and would be the better president in office. Now that I can vote, they constantly ask me, “Who are you voting for, if you do not know make up your, because you have to vote.” I agree with the essay that as an American I am not obligated to vote, it is a privilege and I have the right to take advantage of that privilege or not to.
The phrase, “get the vote out,” is aimed at the young voters, who are new to being able to vote. Just by saying this phrase it makes the young voters excited that they are now old enough to vote. I remember in the previous election on MTV many commercials would air saying, “rock the vote.” That is the exact same words as “get the vote out,” but in a newer more appealing way. In magazines you would see celebrities wearing t-shirts that read, “Rock the vote.” These celebrities knew that by themselves supporting the political season their fans, generally younger people, would be inspired to vote.
Personally, I wanted to vote for the primaries, but I still hadn’t gathered enough information by that time to know who should have the honor of going the next round. I do think that if a person is going to vote that they need to have enough reasoning to support why they are voting for that candidate. Last election, when I was still in high school, we were holding a mock election. After the mock election, my teacher asked a few students who they would vote for and why. One of the girls spoke and said, “I voted for George W. Bush, because he’s cuter of the two.” I was appalled, because looks isn’t what our country needs to be run by. It scares me to think that some people are going into that voting booth with that kind of mentality. I defiantly agree with the essay that it is better to vote with reasoning or just to not vote at all.
Also, in the mock election mentioned above, one of the students shared that he also voted for Bush because his parents were. That is also not a valid reasoning for voting for a certain candidate. A person is responsible to vote for themselves, not a family member or a friend. The argument in this essay is that you shouldn’t be ashamed if you do not vote. The essay mentions that non- voters are just as smart as voters, and it is true. Many people who vote sometimes think that the people who do not vote are dumb because they are not smart enough to understand politics. In fact, I think, that it is the exact opposite because the non-voter most likely just felt that neither candidates should be in office. Voting should not be pressured because it is that person’s choice if they want to or not, regardless if the person paid attention to the political season or if they did not even know who was running for office.
This is a very controversial essay for the year 1955 especially that the author used phrases like, “concluded that Candidate Jones was a boob.” By the look of the essay, the font and the setup of the pages, I could tell that it wasn’t a recent piece. However, once I started to dig into the material, I felt that I was reading something out of a weekly magazine. The fact is that considering this was published fifty years ago and that then and now people are still pressure votes shows a strong social mindset. The mindset is people in politic or involved in politics will do anything to get the candidate they want to be in office to win. Some people will not pressure votes, but most of the time these people will tell you it is your duty as an American citizen to vote. This was talked about in the essay, how it is a “duty” to vote. Well I think that it is my duty to hold on to my rights, and if I want to vote I should do it at my own will and not be pressured into it.
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