Two Cents: Apathy Pays

It is easy during my consideration for each of these Propositions to get caught up in all of the opinions and reports within my own blog, Initiative Madness. Though somewhat tilted to the left, the blogs by my classmates are varied and resourceful, not to mention thought-provoking and insightful. However, to break out of my habit, I decided to investigate the blogs written on the same topic but by a new crowd. The interesting, though sometimes limiting, thing about blogs is that to bother to maintain one, most people must be strongly opinionated on their subject matter. Political blogs are hardly an exception to this rule. After sifting through many vehement and often fairly unsupported reports, a special election blog by a reliable news source was an exciting find. This brings me to a recommendation of the San Francisco Chronicle 2005 Election Blog as an additional source of information and opinion about the November 8 ballot Propositions.

Thanks to my quest to focus on Proposition 75, the posting entitled "Governor: Unions derailing California" caught my eye. The report stuck mostly to facts, quoting the Governor's anti-union stance and aim to blame various state issues on the actions of unions. It resorted to personal commentary only in reflection at the end of the blog. But it did not emphasize the discrepancy that I myself found most startling. In those quotations, the Governor makes outright claims against unions. However, on his campaign homepage, he aims to sell Proposition 75, appealingly dubbed the "Paycheck Protection" Proposition, as beneficial for the unions and "based on the premise of fairness." How is it that the Governor expect this glaring hypocrisy to be overlooked? Probably due to the fact that many (if not the majority of) voters fail to gather sufficient information about each special ballot Proposition.

The reassuring aspect of Proposition 75 is that its outcome is not absolutely decisive about the allocation of union money. Whether we stay loyal to the current system or implement the proposed change, each union member retains an individual decision. The change concerned in Proposition 75 is simply a matter of the default setting of union spending. As of now, it takes effort on the part of the union member to NOT have the union determine the spending of their membership contributions. Proposition 75 would make effort on the part of the union member necessary to HAVE the union determine the spending of their membership contributions. The reason that such a trivial matter, that is which condition is the fall-back condition, is worth arguing over is also due to the lack of participation in politics by the average union member. Whether in the instance of researching the truth about the content of a Proposition or bothering to designate the control of union membership money to the union or oneself, apathy pays. That is, it pays the Governor...