Demise of political literature and what to do with apathetic voters

Like most English majors, I spend a good amount of time in Barnes and Noble.

This is not necessarily because of my love for literature, but rather because the bookstore, unlike the cardboard box I routinely sleep in, is heated and waterproof.

Regardless, it is impossible not to notice the literary trend leeching into bookstores.

Bearing titles like “Gangster Government: Barack Obama and the New Washington Thugocracy,” “The Communist” and “The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration,” these books all say more about the current state of politics than I ever could, at least not without resorting to a level of profanity unfit for print.

These aren’t isolated titles, either.

Search for a conservative reading list and see how many results like “Where’s the Birth Certificate” show up.

These are the sort of books that make you long for the simpler times when repressed conservatives just contented themselves with “50 Shades of Gray.”

There have certainly been moments of failure and disillusionment during the last four years. These books encapsulate none of them.

What they do is cheapen the entire political system, substituting rational, reasoned debate for hate-mongering and scare tactics.

Seriously, one preface mentioned an honest-to-Bond communist conspiracy.

Granted, bookstores carry lots of niche books. They probably have copies of “Mein Kampf” somewhere, too.

Just because somebody wrote it, that doesn’t mean the American people are gullible enough to believe such blatant pandering.

I said that seconds before I noticed several of these books have been on The New York Times bestseller list.

This isn’t research, literature or politics. It’s all the hopes and fears of the worst sort of voters, now available hardbound or in paperback.  

I’m not sure when voting became such a venerated civic engagement. No one bothers.

Just a little more than half of voting-age population actually bothered to vote in 2008, and that presidential election had the best turnout of any since the 1960s.

But given the kind of voters and citizens these books cultivate, I think it is high time to celebrate the unsung heroes, those who understand they are too uninformed, too apathetic or just too high to have any useful input in deciding who runs the country.

Think of it as a voter registration drive, but in reverse.

People would acknowledge they believe Obama is a fascist, Muslim radical, werewolf or whatever, and because of this, they voluntarily abdicate their say in who leads the country.

In exchange, we give them a cookie and maybe a sticker saying, “I didn’t make things worse,” or something along those lines.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m equal opportunity.

I would have another table right across the way for anyone who believes Romney intends to sell them into indentured servitude or Karl Rove is secretly Satan.

We’re taught democracy is meant to represent everyone.

It’s easy to forget felons can’t vote, ostensibly because they have made objectively bad decisions in the past.

Why should the opinions of a YouTube commentator who believes Obama began the Iraqi war, or the person convinced the president is secretly not a citizen, be accorded more weight?

Frankly, I’d take the felon’s insights any day.
 
­— stefsoko@indiana.edu