Psychology of voting scrutinized

I applaud Paige Gray on her column in Tuesday's IDS ("Shame on us all," Sept. 3). I too find myself disheartened by current political trends, and some type of intervention seems appropriate. However, I'd take things a bit farther than Gray by saying that IUSA is making a huge mistake with the car raffle. \nMy problem stands as this: Voting already allows US citizens to act in their own selfish best interest. Ballots are cast too often not out of a sense of social responsibility, but because a tax break sounds nice and this or that party stands against stricter regulations for SUVs. That in hand, what does the Corvette situation hold in store for the psychology of voting? It appears that giving away a car to some lucky voter will, by exceptionally concrete means, bolster patterns of selfish electoral needs. No matter how much US politicians desecrate the construct of liberty by pandering to purely selfish tendencies, IUSA does not need to make itself a part of this.