Mona Charen has unwittingly become my dialogue partner.

Charen is a syndicated columnist published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a columnist that almost never fails to illicit an emotional response from her readers. Today’s column began with a hand-wringing harangue about MTV’s "get out the vote" effort. Mona pointed out that the majority of American’s are uneducated about several current issues of concern, and that an uneducated vote is worse than no vote. She concluded by pleading for uninformed voters to stay home on November 2.

As I read Mona's plea, I remembered a teacher who used to say that "Democracy is the only form of government where the votes of the smart people were canceled out by the votes of the dumb-#@!’s." Is this what Mona meant? Clearly a more savvy electorate would be welcome, one able to read beyond the sound-byte. The "presidential" debates were a dismal display of well rehearsed slogans and pointed fingers. Televised commercials are misguiding enough to discourage television viewing altogether. If a serious educational effort is the point to which Mona ascribes, I find myself in the unlikely place of agreement.

But in the very middle of her article she identifies a short list of issues that bear witness to our "uneducated" status. She names just a few, but the centerpiece is partial birth abortion. Partial birth abortion? An incredibly significant moral issue, but a central campaign issue?

"Who supports partial birth abortion?" my daughter asked. A splendid question, really, because the answer is probably "no one". Partial birth abortion is a pseudonym for late term abortion, a rare procedure reserved for really sad situations. I don’t personally know people who "support" such sadness, but I do know many people who support the right of a woman and her doctor to proceed with the choice they make. Although a discussion of morality with my preteen daughter is appropriate, I am struck that this is what pundits have labeled a "wedge issue". Any issues which involves our sexuality (orientation, reproduction, or otherwise) illicit such an overwhelming emotive response that all other issues pale. When issues like "gay marriage" and "abortion" are dropped on the table, they are red flags on the dialogue. Educated inquiry ceases, and sound bytes take center stage.

An educated electorate might want to know about the 213,000 children living in poverty, the 14.7 million people unemployed and underemployed, and the 44 million people without health insurance. An educated electorate might want to know that water pollution is on the rise, automobile efficiency is on the decline, and logging is scheduled for the Sequoia National Monument and Tongass National Forest. Perhaps Charen is one of the uneducated voters who should stay home?

If Charen is right that an educated electorate is really important, then it is imperative that we move beyond these wedge issues and begin to discuss economics, education, and foreign policy. We must be willing to discuss what justice would look like in our nation and in our world, what commitments we will make to be a compassionate nation, and what covenant we are willing to keep with our environment.

In the meantime, I am willing to take my chances with the MTV crowd at the polls. I suspect that this younger generation, illiterate though they may be about partial birth abortion, have a pretty clear sense of the dangers of our current foreign policy; it is, after all, the youth who are expected to don the uniforms and march to the drumbeat. These same youth know all too well the manifestations of unemployment and skyrocketing tuition rates. Given their immersion in the issues of the day, maybe it's Charen and I who should stay home on November 2. Better yet, let's all go to the polls together.