A Little Observation February 1, 2009 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

In 2006, amid an increasingly unpopular war & president, Katrina, and the Abu-Ghraib & Guantanamo abuses, a whopping 37.1% of Americans turned out to vote.  In the 2008 presidential elections, amid a Depression-like market crash, exorbitant energy prices, two wars, and the most unpopular incumbent president ever, only 57% of Americans came to the voting booths.  I just read this morning that for the Iraqi elections that took place yesterday, even with the threat of car bombs and sectarian violence, with confusion over polling places, with gun-wielding soldiers guarding rooftops, the turnout averaged above 50% across the entire country and was as high as 75% in many places.  Iraqis might literally DIE going to vote and yet they have an average turnout greater than Americans, whose greatest risk of death is heart disease.  Really now, people.  We can do better than this.