There's An Election On The Way
And it might just be fun! But you won’t have a vote if you’re not registered...
Valerie Flynn, 18 Jan 2011
Are you registered to vote? It’s a question that everyone who wants a say in the future of the country should ask themselves, as the political parties begin to shape up for a General Election, on a date yet to be ecided over the next couple of months. Because if you’re not in, you have no say in who wins...
The pundits keep telling us that the Irish political landscape could be changed utterly after the upcoming election. But that might not be as straightforward a proposition as the commentators have been suggesting: for a start, there’s a real danger that many people feel so alienated from politics that they won’t bother to vote at all.
You might recall that in 2004, American purveyors of quasi-ironic hipster garb Urban Outfitters launched a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Voting is for Old People’.
There followed a short-lived pseudo-controversy, as chillingly earnest bloggers and other civic-minded pundits, politicians and morons-in-general lined up to condemn Urban Outfitters for their irresponsibility in attempting to lead the yoof of America from the path of enfranchised righteousness.
The company was forced to issue a statement explaining, for the benefit, you might say, of lame-brains everywhere, that the shirt was “never meant to be misconstrued as anti-voting”. The unfortunate 26-year-old designer said he had intended to “point a finger at all of us who’ve been so apathetic in the past.” Well, maybe. Either way, his t-shirt was soon discontinued.
Now he’s homeless on the streets of San Francisco, his skinny jeans all in tatters, a shadow of his former self.
I made that last part up. But the point is this: if Urban Outfitters had wanted to defend their shirt on the grounds of accuracy – never mind irony – they could have counted on the support of an army of political scientists. The fact is that for years the youth of Ireland – just like their counterparts in the USA – have been more than slightly apathetic. The hope is that 2011 will see a change in that pattern.
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