We should give a pony to every voter w/Poll

Yet again, we have noted the apathy of the voting public.  In this case, it happens to be Democrats in Virginia, but this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident.  How can we ever hope to take back the Congress in 2006 if we don't get these voters out?  

Is this a societal problem?  Does the instant gratification of television, computers, and videogames simply make non-virtual reality a tedious bore?  Are their jobs so tiring and difficult (compared to previous voters) that they simply can't?  Is the scheduling and logistics of elections making it more difficult than in the past?  Are their families to large and playing too much soccer to allow them to vote for their next representative to Congress?

Are these elections truly not relevant to individuals?  Or is the more typical "they just don't know that it is relevant to them" explanation more correct?

Or is another common explanation, that Americans simply don't feel that their vote or actions matter, more correct?  

So, given these ponderings into the psychological causes (rather than the vote suppression tricks of the yellow elephants), what would the effect be of motivating these voters to go to the polls?  Would they vote the way we want them to?  Is this even a question a liberal should be asking, or should we just attempt to get the most votes out there that we can, and damn the consequences?

And even if they did vote the way we wanted them to, how in the world do we motivate them to go to the polls?  

More fundamentally, how do we elevate the idea of public service, ranging from:
* voting (the minimum public participation), to
* serving on juries
* feeling that paying taxes is an important contribution to the welfare of our society, to
* volunteerism for any number of causes, to
* serving honorably in county, state, and national offices.

Better yet, how do we bring the civil discussion of politics back from the grave?  We have to be able to discuss these important national issues without being torn apart for even asking the question.  Unmotivated voters view politics and public service as dirty things by-and-large now - how do we improve that situation?

The only thing that comes to mind beyond our blogging, volunteering on the ground, and talking with friends and relatives is another Apollo mission, or even better, a plan to Energize America.  Maybe there are some other unifying, inspiring ideas out there to get the voter to the booth.

So, I am out of questions.  Maybe you can ask me some, or maybe you can give me some answers.  Thanks ahead of time.