Quote:
Originally posted by adduncan
In principle, encouraging voter registration and voting in elections (for US citizens) is a great idea. However, IMHO, it would only work if a stipulation were on the books that partisanship on any level were prohibited.
Given how strident peoples' feelings are on any political topic (take a look at GC threads from the past month) this idea could blow up if boundaries aren't set. You never know when someone of any political bent would get a wild hair and start over-promoting an agenda that could potentially split a chapter, or even an organization.
This is quite close to the discussions posted earlier about religious activities in an org. Someone once innocently posted that people in their chapter of like mind would have a Bible study. Then someone else from a different chapter (or even from a different org!) got offended even at the *concept* of people of faith expressing it publicly, merely because they disagreed with it. That's the sign of a major powderkeg.
Political feelings run just as high. As soon as someone expresses the political ideas and try to live by them in public, someone else will be o-ffen-ded and call for their censorship. Not a good way to build brotherhood or sisterhood.
All good innovations about personal ideals stay good when there are boundaries to them.
--add
|
We're talking about sitting at a table in a prominent location, asking people if they're registered and then if they're not, asking them if they'd like to be and helping them (if they need help) while they fill out an application. The words Republican or Democrat shouldn't even come out of the table-sitters' mouths.
I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what a "voter registration drive" actually is. If you have a bake sale, you don't ask everyone who bakes a pie how they feel about Greek life, would they like to be Greek, if not why not, yadda yadda yadda.