By Crystal Luong
Assistant Perspectives Editor
Over the years, the college campus has functioned as a center for heated discussion on government policies and candidates. An election or governmental decision can spark passionate debate on a campus, which can house hundreds to thousands of bright-eyed students, who hold a unique position in American society.
As the California Democratic primary inches closer, we at the Graphic hope students are as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about this year’s elections as they have proved in the past.
March 2, California residents will take to the polls to vote in the Democratic presidential primary. Dubbed “Super Tuesday” because California, New York, Ohio and Georgia, among six other states, hold primaries that day. Registered voters in the “Golden State” will vote for their preferred candidates, as well as determine the fate of propositions 55 through 58. And while Pepperdine’s campus will undoubtedly prove rather silent that Tuesday (it’s Spring Break after all), it’s important for Pepperdine students to make their cause known at the polls instead.
The concept of a public election is undoubtedly one of the foundations upon which the Founding Fathers built the nation. Seeking freedom from religious persecution, the first citizens of our country hoped to maintain control over their own affairs and saw government as an extension of its people, not an end-all omnipotent force.
John Adams once said to the developing nation, “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe.” These are the rights we acknowledge and protect when we vote.
It is easy to dismiss the act of voting. Some elections will see more than a million votes cast, and it may not seem like just one vote — your vote — could make a difference. The historic presidential election of 2000 proved it could. That year’s election saw the closest of its kind in the nation’s 228-year history when only 537 Florida votes separated President George W. Bush from Democratic candidate Al Gore.
Seniors will certainly remember the tense excitement that invigorated the campus that November evening, an excitement which actually kept the campus abuzz all night.
Students rallied behind their candidate by yelling support out the window and posting haphazard signs in dorms while their 13-inch television screens constantly flipped between CNN and Fox News for the latest election coverage. And whether they admit it or not, many students, perhaps for the first time, felt privileged to be a part of our country’s electoral process. Finally they understood it and actually enjoyed casting a vote, which they saw made a difference.
The United States boasts close to 9.5 million college students between the ages of 18 and 24. This year’s presidential election may prove more important than most as concerns regarding the war on terrorism, the economic state of the nation, education and foreign policy issues demand the attention of the country’s populace. This election will also mark our country’s first true decision regarding the nation’s leadership since the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Maybe one vote won’t make as dramatic a difference this year, but 9.5 million will certainly send a clear message to our country about where college students stand on the important issues. And yes, Pepperdine accounts for a few thousand of those 9.5 million votes.
More than 30 years ago, our country drafted 18-year-olds to fight in wars while prohibiting them from voting for or against the president who would send them into battle. All that changed when President Nixon certified the 26th Amendment, which granted all U.S. citizens 18 years of age and older the right to vote.
In 1971, Nixon stated, “The reason I believe that your generation, the 11 million new voters, will do so much for America at home is that you will infuse into this nation some idealism, some courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose, that this country always needs.” Today we are that generation and are still responsible for “infusing” our country with the same qualities it expects and requires from us.
While many Pepperdine students are not Democrats or California residents, the elections affect us all. And while the right not to vote is as much a privilege as the right to vote, it is not a passionate feeling against the country that proves a threat to our future, but a general apathy that could seriously harm our democracy. We’ll see you at the polls.
February 26, 2004