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There is an untapped resource in America. They are both challenging and encouraging at the same time. And I would contend, they are key to bringing “sanity and caring” back into our broken democracy.
… Afterall, there are “reasons” — WHY they are disillusioned.
1. They’re not asked or encouraged to vote by candidates, campaigns, family, friends, or neighbors.
2. They’re not taught how the government and elections work or feel like they don’t know enough to vote.
3. There are too many barriers for them to overcome.
4. They’re not interested in politics or feel like voting won’t make a difference.
What To Do About It: This might be the toughest reason to overcome. In the short term, we encourage you to help young people discover why politics and voting matters by showing them how the issues they volunteer to help fix also need to be addressed through policy to truly solve the problem. Long term, engaging them in advocacy for policies that make it easier to vote, or for campaign finance or gerrymandering reform could help them feel invested in changing the system.
ysa.org
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This is what Civic Disengagement sounds like …
NPR, Morning Edition — Sept 10, 2018
Among the other 4 in 10 who did not vote was Megan Davis. The 31-year-old massage therapist in Rhode Island never votes, and she's proud of her record.
"I feel like my voice doesn't matter," she said on a recent evening at a park in East Providence, R.I. "People who suck still are in office, so it doesn't make a difference."
[...]
Shelby Mabis, a stocky blonde Marine corps veteran, remembers taking a government class in high school, but said he didn't learn anything about voting.
"From what all I know about voting is you show up to a poll place and you vote, but I don't know what I need to bring. I don't even know what happens during there," said Mabis, 23, outside of his mandatory political science class at a community college in North Las Vegas. And so he's never voted before.
[...]
Tammy Lester, a 42-year-old fast food worker in McDowell County, W.Va., can't remember the last time she voted.
"We vote these people in and they don't help McDowell County," she said, as she walked along the deserted streets in the rundown downtown with her daughter. "There's nothing ... there's no jobs when our kids graduate, they have to leave."
Beyond a movie theater, a small pharmacy, and a couple of county offices, most of the storefronts are closed. A couple of years ago, the closest Walmart shut down, and now there's hardly anywhere locals can buy fresh produce.
Lester said politicians always ignore her county. "We are last on everything," she said.
"What good does it do, though, when they'll promise you anything and then it's a lie," she asked rhetorically.
Column: ‘No offense, but I never vote.’ Stunning apathy in the heart of California’s Trump resistance
by Steve Lopez, LATimes, Columnist — June 6, 2018
Andrew Hernandez, the young man who told me he had his voting materials at home but hadn’t reviewed them, made that same point.
“I’m not uneducated,” he said, nor is he disinterested in politics.
But he is turned off by televised campaign ads that exaggerate and distort or that “prey on people’s fears.” He’s also a little disillusioned after voting for Hillary Clinton and watching Trump drive her to defeat.
“It goes back to feeling let down and to see a guy in office who doesn’t give a [rhymes with wit] and isn’t a diplomat,” said Hernandez, who expects to be more politically engaged once he gets over his malaise. “I think a lot of kids my age are angry. I can go out and protest, and kids are still going to get shot in schools.”
[...]
A young woman named Nina said she intended to vote, and thought she had registered, but discovered on election day that she’s not eligible yet.
[...]
“Actually, I was thinking about voting,” said Kia Zomorrodi, 25. “But I didn’t do the research, and it would probably be better if I didn’t vote uninformed.”
Samantha | Age 22 | Old Bridge, New Jersey | Last Voted: 2016
2016 was such a disillusioning experience. Going into the election, I was so proud to be in this country at this moment, so proud to be voting for Hillary Clinton. I had my Clinton sweatshirt on all day. I was on Twitter telling people that if they didn’t vote they were dead to me — like the whole thing. Watching the results come in, it was just disheartening. My faith in the whole system was crushed pretty quickly. That was the first general election I could vote in, too.
Tim | Age 27 | Austin, Texas | Has Never Voted
I tried to register for the 2016 election, but it was beyond the deadline by the time I tried to do it. I hate mailing stuff; it gives me anxiety. I don’t remember seeing voter-registration drives, no. I’ve seen a lot more the past two years. I’m sure there must have been stuff. I just don’t remember it.
Drew | Age 21 | Berkeley, California | Last Voted: 2016
I feel like the Democratic Party doesn’t really stand for the things I believe in anymore. Why should I vote for a party that doesn’t really do anything for me as a voter? Millennials don’t vote because a lot of politicians are appealing to older voters. We deserve politicians that are willing to do stuff for our future instead of catering to people who will not be here for our future. I’m a poli-sci major, so talking about politics is a daily thing for me. Half of the people I talk to seem very into voting. The other half are people who, like me, don’t really feel represented. The only thing they choose to vote in is local elections.
This is what such widespread Civic Disengagement ultimately leads to …
How Western Civilisation could Collapse
by Rachel Nuwer, BBC.com — 17th April 2017
The political economist Benjamin Friedman once compared modern Western society to a stable bicycle whose wheels are kept spinning by economic growth. Should that forward-propelling motion slow or cease, the pillars that define our society – democracy, individual liberties, social tolerance and more – would begin to teeter. Our world would become an increasingly ugly place, one defined by a scramble over limited resources and a rejection of anyone outside of our immediate group. Should we find no way to get the wheels back in motion, we’d eventually face total societal collapse.
Such collapses have occurred many times in human history, and no civilisation, no matter how seemingly great, is immune to the vulnerabilities that may lead a society to its end. Regardless of how well things are going in the present moment, the situation can always change. Putting aside species-ending events like an asteroid strike, nuclear winter or deadly pandemic, history tells us that it’s usually a plethora of factors that contribute to collapse. What are they, and which, if any, have already begun to surface? It should come as no surprise that humanity is currently on an unsustainable and uncertain path – but just how close are we to reaching the point of no return?
While it’s impossible to predict the future with certainty, mathematics, science and history can provide hints about the prospects of Western societies for long-term continuation.
Safa Motesharrei, a systems scientist at the University of Maryland, uses computer models to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that can lead to local or global sustainability or collapse. According to findings that Motesharrei and his colleagues published in 2014, there are two factors that matter: ecological strain and economic stratification. The ecological category is the more widely understood and recognised path to potential doom, especially in terms of depletion of natural resources such as groundwater, soil, fisheries and forests – all of which could be worsened by climate change.
Disaster comes when elites push society toward instability and eventual collapse by hoarding huge quantities of wealth and resources
That economic stratification may lead to collapse on its own, on the other hand, came as more of a surprise to Motesharrei and his colleagues. Under this scenario, elites push society toward instability and eventual collapse by hoarding huge quantities of wealth and resources, and leaving little or none for commoners who vastly outnumber them yet support them with labour. Eventually, the working population crashes because the portion of wealth allocated to them is not enough, followed by collapse of the elites due to the absence of labour. The inequalities we see today both within and between countries already point to such disparities. For example, the top 10% of global income earners are responsible for almost as much total greenhouse gas emissions as the bottom 90% combined. Similarly, about half the world’s population lives on less than $3 per day.
[...]
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The “Bread and Circuses” of the modern era — have led to our wide-spread social apathy, the same as in historic times past. Some of the symptoms of this “social decline” — already in progress — can be gauged by the wide-spread adoption of so many dis-empowerment memes:
- “Whatever, it doesn’t affect me.”
- “I got mine. Everyone else is on their own.”
- “The system is rigged. Only the rich get richer. So why bother?”
- “Both sides do it. It’s all the same.”
- “They’re all crooked.”
- “My vote won’t matter.”
- “Who’s got time for Politics. I’ve got to live in the real world.”
- “What difference will my vote make. It’s only 1 vote out of thousands.”
- “What difference will one voice make, in this sea of perpetual chatter and bombast?”
That is the social-political landscape of America, circa 2020. Throw in a revamped social-engineering campaign or two, built on the lessons learned in 2016 — and almost anything can happen … and probably will.
Unless we leverage those dynamics too.
And begin promoting a groundswell backlash against voter apathy. Reach out and target the “lone voices demographic” — and dare them to rise up by the millions, to take our power back. Empower them to “Vote off” the oblivious takers — AKA the “wealthy elites” tucked away on #Enclave Island …
And here’s how:
Somehow social agenda setters and opinions leaders, need to find a way to:
Make Voting cool again.
Crazier things have happened … say around 1776 for example … where Tyranny was challenged and ultimately defeated!
It can happen here.
Where “4 in 10 who did not vote” — hashtag trends into a much more respectable, #8in10WhoDid …
Where Voting is “just what everybody is doing now” — who knew?
Dear disillusioned fellow citizens:
It’s your world too. So speak up, help course correct, and right the ship … while we still can.
Both sides are not the same — not by a long shot.
All the blind allegiance to Trump should have taught us that lesson, if nothing else:
Both sides are not the same.
One side believes in Science and Facts … Equality and Fairness.
The other side believes in just Trump — and are fine with a Bully wrecking the place.
— Signed your fellow travelers
Please vote in 2020.
Vote like your world depended on it. … (Because it does.)
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