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Second-class
citizens
By Clarence Page
Chicago Tribune
September 19, 2004
WASHINGTON -- We, the people of the non-swing states, feel like second-class citizens.
For those of us who live in states that common sense and the pollsters say will vote dependably "red" for President Bush or "blue" for Sen. John Kerry, the Nov. 2 presidential election seems eerily to be not about us.
That's because we are the huge majority of Americans who do not happen to live in the five or 10 "swing states" made up of people who apparently have a hard time making up their minds.
These are the people, I suspect, who are always in front of me in the supermarket checkout line--the people who are struck mute when the clerk asks: "Paper or plastic?"
And what do we, who live in states where most people long ago made up their minds, receive for our decisiveness? Neglect.
Like the proverbial wallflower who never gets asked to dance, we twiddle our thumbs on the sidelines, glancing at our watches and otherwise trying to maintain a smidgen of dignity while the big-time candidates wooed the daylights out of those moody, fickle, wishy-washy, undecided swing states.
Swing states? The term even sounds promiscuous.
Who are these "undecided" voters anyway? I'm beginning to believe that they made up their minds weeks ago but they're enjoying the attention too much to admit it.
C'mon candidates, non-swing state voters want some love too.
Throughout the peak of our childhoods, we all begin hearing that our vote counts and how important it is to vote. What a beautiful and inspirational line! Only it’s dead wrong. Republicans in California and Democrats in Texas will tell you why. The constant certainty of the hue of their state during an election year subsequently has quite a discouraging effect on voter turnout. And it makes perfect sense. Why should a Texan waste and hour of his day and a bit of gas driving to the polls to vote for John Kerry? There’s no point to it. Therein lies our problem, and it’s called the Electoral College.
2004
Swing States
Electoral College Table of
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