Voting: The best response to terror - Closer to home

I earn my "I Voted" sticker every election day. Usually I get up an hour early so that I can take a detour to the sunny "People's Republic of Takoma Park" to make a few marks on a card (or recently, a few swipes in front of a Diebold touch screen machine). It's not much, but voting makes me feel like I'm a patriot more than anything else I do during the year.

And in an age of terrorism, we must not lose sight of this ideal.

Consider the first instance we've had of terrorism's use as a grotesque campaign event: Madrid on March 11. Bombs that killed roughly 190 and wounded thousands were obviously meant to affect the election. But we have multiple storylines on how that event played out.

One story runs like this: Al Qaeda blows up Spaniards in order to terrorize them into opposing Spain's involvement in Iraq and voting out the government. Many Spanish voters are terrified, angry at the government for having dragged them into the conflict and seek to throw off their Al Qaeda torturers by kicking the government out of office.

Based on this storyline, many in this country have knocked the Spanish as appeasers: Neville Chamberlain-esque wishful thinkers who cannot see beyond their selfish interests. "Here is a nation," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert told The Washington Post, "who succumbed to threats of terrorism, changed their government." They made a decision, said Hastert, "in a sense to appease terrorists."

As always, there's another point of view: Spanish voters punished the government for their misinformation campaign surrounding the bombings. In this world, the government's attempt to avoid the tough questions cost them the election. As reported in E.J. Dionne's Washington Post column, Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, commented, "I think the vote that propelled the Socialists into power in Spain, as I understand it, was a protest by the people against the handling of the terrorist event by the sitting government of Spain."

So when the terrorists come knocking, what's a democracy to do? Is there an action at the ballot box that supports your country? Is supporting a candidate that agrees in part with the aims of the terrorists, as Zapatero did, anti-patriotic? Or should we close ranks around the government and show our solidarity with it as it fights against the murderers?

Voting in anger against a government for having brought the terrorists home risks sending them the message that their atrocities work.

Indeed, those who accused the Spanish of appeasement argue that the long-term interest of a democracy lies in figuring out what the terrorists want and voting the opposite way.

At the same time, democratic societies cannot and must not yield to the temptation to take the simple way out of this dilemma. Simply voting blindly for the government after an attack gives the terrorists power.

It's a trap we cannot afford to fall in. With the political influence available from that kind of thinking, we should make sure Al Qaeda registers with the FEC as a influence group.

I suggest an alternative viewpoint to the discussion. Ignore the terrorists.

Obviously, democracies cannot afford to ignore terrorists as a matter of general policy. That path leads to the end of the dream of a free society. But when election time rolls around, voters cannot afford to let the terrorists dictate the terms of the political discussion.

If the terrorists attack, we should make a choice. Ignore the terrorists in the voting booth. Use our anger and determination to see our country prevail to make sure we get there.

In a democracy, that should be our response to terrorism. Not to support one side or another, not to make terror a partisan event, but to honor the ideals of the country by going to the polls and vote.

So if the October surprise turns out to be an attack on our train system or our highways, then I will remember the Spanish. Responding, as the they did, with higher turnout, with greater participation and with greater pride in being a part of the political process: That's the right democratic answer to terror.

Raphael Schweber-Koren is the News-Letter's opinions editor.