Is it my self-righteous bias or is there truth in the belief that the minority of citizens who are the ones that chose to vote today are the people who value democracy and really care about community and civic life.
Could there be another group of people who have those qualities but choose not to vote?
(I am not talking about the folks who would have voted and/or planned to vote but their life plans interrupted or took a higher priority than getting to the polls)
Why don’t people get it that we are in an imperfect democracy that needs everyone pulling (if not “together”) to actively feed our futures?
Please share widely!
At the risk of being accused of being a conspiracy theorist, low voter turnout is advantageous to the wealthy class as the USA continues in its spiral return to a two tiered nation and the middle class is chiseled away (or hammered as Senator Warren would say) . The “Middle Class” that we all grew up in was anomaly. A “middle class” citizen is simply a laborer who can support himself or herself with their labor, not dependent on the largess of the wealthy. Not all wealthy class citizens are anti-independent labor, but enough are and they do all they can to suppress us.
They want us to exalt them as “job creators” and many of us do. How many times have I heard some poor laborer attack my view of higher taxes on the wealthy as class warfare followed by the statement “I’ve never been hired by a poor man but I’ve got lots of jobs from a rich man.”
They want us to think that we can be rich too, if we only worked harder and “got the government out of the way”. What better way to “get the government out of the way” than to ignore it at the polls?
They like us to think that “there is no difference between the two parties” and that “the government can’t do anything right” and that the voice of the people is “mob rule” and worse, “Socialism”. When we have these thoughts, we don’t show up at the polls.
This is more a belief about lack of belief in the system.
You might be surprised at the amount of activists who are concerned about a plethora of issues and organize campaigns, initiatives, protests, attempt to make their own communities that are democratic and responsive, inclusive to make the world a better place, yet don’t follow local or state politics. 🙁
The post that was up a week or so back about the ex-Occupier who lamented having to sit through Democratic Party procedures and how much funner it was for her to play dress up revolutionary and dance like the world was ending is fairly representative for the activists outside the 2-party system who I’ve come in contact with over the past couple decades.
I completely understand that not everyone is going to commit to caucuses and conventions, but policies get changed by those who are elected to make them, and they are elected by people who show up.
It’s an option that we inherit, that Americans at the age of 18 are entitled to. It’s shameful, our high voter apathy.