Ok, so the title is a bit alarmist.

But one month or so after his nomination, I’m still extremely puzzled by South Carolina’s decision to nominate Democrat Alvin Greene to run against Republican Jim DeMint. Granted, the Democratic nominee had no chance to win even if it was Uncle Sam himself, but nominating someone who not only has no political experience, but is unemployed, has a mediocre record in the Army, is accused of showing porn to a college student, and didn’t fundraise or even have a campaign website? Over a four-term state House of Representative legislator? So what happened here?

One possibility is that there was some kind of mass conspiracy by Republicans to manipulate the elections towards Sen. DeMint’s favor. This is made somewhat possible by South Carolina’s open primary system. But why would Republicans rig an election that’s already a surefire win for them? They would not risk their reputation at such a crucial period to help win a Senate seat that they’ve held since the primary adopted its current format.

That leaves only one other scenario: the voters voted for someone at random, and Alvin Greene sure sounds like a more folksy name than Vic Rawl. In fact, one woman voted for him because his name reminded her of the singer Al Green.

So nice to see people take voting this seriously.

I’m not normally a rah-rah founding fathers sort of person, but I’m pretty sure Washington didn’t freeze half his army to near death so people can vote based on who sounds good to them. This is a good opportunity for the nation to examine themselves and their priorities and responsibilities as citizens of the United States- if they can turn their attention from the tabloids and music videos for a while.

And it’s not just voting. It seems to me that Americans of these times are asking “What can my country do for me?” (or in the case of conservatives, “How has the government screwed me over?”) more than ever. We sit back and expect good things to drop in our laps instead of trying to work hard for it. We’re getting more and more complacent in our nation’s superiority, to the point where we would rather vote based on our favorite singers than on issues, figuring that democracy will take care of itself.

This is a very dangerous road to take in the face of increased globalization. Other countries- China, India, even Brazil- are working the hardest they can to become one of the dominant forces of the next few decades to come. In order to meet this challenge, we need an educated and most importantly motivated workforce. Unfortunately, it seems like this willingness to meet challenges or even be informed is lacking in the American people. South Carolina’s primary may be just one indication of that.