A heated discourse between a comedian and news anchor seems to embody the spirit of the upcoming 2020 election. This 2014 video of Bill O’Reilly, former Fox news anchor and far-right conservative, debating Jon Stewart, former The Daily Show host with mostly Democratic views, sums up the current charged political atmosphere. It also serves to reflect how little we have progressed politically in the last six years since this video was published. This exchange highlights white privilege, systemic racism and the Ebola crisis. One election later, these issues persist in varied and larger proportions.
As a first-time voter in a presidential election, the polarized nature of politics makes sorting through the flood of information difficult. Trying to make sense of the Electoral College while prioritizing different policies over the political party is impossible. The Electoral College has two fundamental flaws.The first is if you don’t vote for the candidate who wins your state, your vote doesn’t count towards choosing a president. The second flaw lies in the origins of the system: It was designed to empower Southern, white voters and certain states.
The Electoral College has a long way to go before being perfected or even amended. But for right now, if people are engaged, eventually the political system responds, despite the money and lobbyists. In 2020, one in 10 eligible voters will be members of Generation Z. These are numbers that can make a difference, even in the Electoral College. The best solutions are often simple: Please vote. Apathy in an election is just as harmful as apathy in a social movement.
Pack the Polls is a non-partisan coalition of students, staff and community organizers focused on increasing voter engagement in the NC State community. It also has encompassing resources for the upcoming election. In lieu of the pandemic, North Carolina has expanded absentee voting access in 2020 elections. The law requires the state’s Board of Elections to establish an online absentee request portal for North Carolina voters. This has existed for the U.S. military since the Civil War. Voters can also register online for their county in North Carolina here.
For elections in 2020, including the Nov. 3 general election, the law reduced the number of witnesses who must sign a voter’s absentee ballot from two to one. The law also expanded the types of voter identification accepted. Voting is a right that should be easy to understand and easily accessible. In these circumstances, this seems like the best option. In 2016, there were 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people out of the 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections. This is 0.0025% of detected fraud. It’s not a perfect system, but it is the safest option for the maximum number of people.
O’Reilly and Stewart have had a series of these heated but respectful debates. But even they managed to find some common ground in calling out the “birther movement” against President Obama. O’Reilly also backed Stewart when he advocated the 9/11 first responders bill in Congress. There are certain humanitarian and scientific issues that do not need to be politically radicalized. Safety gear in a pandemic and systemic racism are some of those issues.
Being oblivious to politics at this juncture is a form of entitlement. A healthy political discourse deradicalizes and unifies voters while keeping them informed.
Especially right now, with radical ideas taking the foreground such as police defunding, which is widely misunderstood. Defunding the police does not mean that we will eliminate all cops and succumb as a society to crime. It is simply to use some of the money set aside for the police force for vulnerable communities, reinvesting in their education, mental health services, stable housing and community organizations. This is necessary for a meaningful shift in policing culture while trying to eradicate the use of excessive force and stereotypes that are embedded in the system.
Going back to Jon Stewart, who recently said the series of satirical debates with Bill O’Reilly was his biggest regret from The Daily Show. He believes that it increased “evisceration expectation.” The emphasis should be solely on political policies and perspective, not their public images, much like the upcoming election.
For young people with a new responsibility, these discourses fueled research into their political views. It also fueled conversations, which hopefully mean a bigger voter turnout for the upcoming elections.
Editor’s Note: Updated byline.
