My response.

Jackson Martin III
Feb. 12, 2008

The phrase “Get out the vote” is a very controversial phrase. This term means that no matter how you as a person that is eligible to vote you must go out and vote. Voting is a right that has been passed to the American people from the constitution. The constitution does not say that you have to vote, but it gives you the right as a human to vote for the person that you see to be the best for said job.
The voice that pops into my head when I hear the slogan “get out the vote” is my Granddad’s. The reason for this is because my Grandfather is from the time period that this article was written in, and he shares the same views that the article represents. I remember the day that I turned eighteen. My Granddad called my cell phone and told me that it was time to go get registered to vote. I did not understand why this was so urgent to him that I get registered so soon, but it only took a few seconds before he told me that “No matter what you are going to vote in all of the elections that come your way. It is your right and duty to do so”. Now every time I hear anything about voting I always think about my Din-Din (that is my Granddad). It also seems that I reference these type terms to Republicans because of course my Granddad is a Republican.
The audience for this phrase is a very broad audience. It is simple the audience is every person in the United States that is eligible to vote. All people that are allowed to vote in the United States should “get out the vote”. Well the article does target mainly target those people in the USA that are not getting out to place their vote. The reason that voter’s are being influenced to “get out the vote” is because the candidates know that they will receive an enormous amount of votes because their names are on the top of the list.
Probably the most notorious “get out the vote” phrase from recent times would be “Vote or Die”. “Vote or Die” is a phrase the P Diddy (Sean “puffy” Combes) came up with for the 2004 voting campaign. P Diddy came up with this phrase because he knew that he is a super star, and young people will follow what ever he says. Lets face it everyone follow celebrities, and they know it and try to take advantage of it. P Diddy was not alone with this “Vote or Die” campaign he also had Paris Hilton, Kanye West, and the whole VH1 crew rocking his slogan.
The main difference between these two phrases is that the “get out the vote” slogan was focusing on the people in the United States that were not voting and also trying too keep the regulars voting, but P Diddy’s “Vote or Die” was putting the main focus on the younger people. “Vote or Die” tried to get the “Hip Hop generation” who is not known for the regular voting habits to get out and vote. Although “get out the vote” was simply trying to make everyone vote “Vote or Die” picked a side, and wanted everyone to vote for a certain candidate.
The main point of this article is to defend the right that everyone has to vote or not to vote. The article declares that “get out the vote” is not a very strong political device. This term is not helping out the voting process, but yet getting everyone out and voting is slowing down the process. The article also states that all of the people that come to vote with an intelligent perspective of the candidates are being cancelled out by the people who simply come for the act of voting. When everyone comes to vote with out an intelligent mind set the process becomes slower, more expensive, and makes it harder to put your vote in. Voting is a privilege. There is not a law that says you have to vote. The article also says that there will eventually be laws passed that you will have to vote or their will be fines or even jail time if you choose not to vote. I am not surprised that the article was written about fifty years ago. Although even today there are still campaigns that try to “get out the vote”.