Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewmik
No it's a personal decision. In my view it's irresponsible but no one can force another to be responsible. However I will encourage a person to vote.
I think the most common is a person feels a can't win anyway philosophy.
Three things with that. How many people when talking politics aren't even registered. People show an interest but fail to be a voice. People are never happy with the status quo. I swear someplace in the presidential oath of office it should say "And be prepared to be the most criticized man on the planet".
Second, We as a people have a bad habit of voting against and not for. In 08 allot of people voted against the Republican machine not for President Obama.
Third many people don't vote because they cannot agree with a candidate on either side. Some who didn't vote chose not to because of Senator McCain's statement to keep the US armed forces in Iraq for 100 years if need be. At the same time they disagreed with President Obama feeling that he was to much of a celebrity. As a result they didn't vote because of a feeling of a lack of options.
Look at this Pew Poll. Notice the top graph that out lines how frequently people vote and the differences between frequent and non frequent answers.
Who Votes, Who Doesn't, and Why: Summary of Findings - Pew Research Center for the People & the Press |
Whenever people are dissatisfied enough, they'll vote, in spite of any difficulties. Occassionally, we'll see a larger than usual turn out (such as in 2008 or 1960) and it's because something has come up which makes them intolerant of the status quo any longer. When they don't vote in large numbers, it simply means they're not disturbed enough about the way things are to actually overcome the impediments and vote. In other words, they're content enough to warrant avoiding the polls.
Of course, we rarely see much over 50% of eligible voters go the polls, but that's nothing new. It's been the case here since the beginning. So has the number of people who aren't even registered and have no intention registering.
Why? I agree with D'Touqueville: It's because there is nothing in the election which is important to them personally. We vote our self interest, which shouldn't be surprising because this is a nation founded on self interest. In national elections, on national issues, fewer people vote because they don't see a connection between the issues of the day and them personally. For instance, it's hard to get excited about a candidate who promises new roads, but if he's promising a new road on YOUR property, it's suddenly in your personal interest to vote.
Neither national party seems to understand that as they run campaigns focused on either large issues or on the other candidate. Not surprisingly, they have a hard time turning out the vote.
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