And if they don’t? What’s the penalty and whose fault is it?
The whole suggestion is unworkable if taken literally, and gets nowhere if not.
That’s what I meant when I said you were taking it too literally. It’s not a suggestion. It’s an expression of frustration and cynicism.
I saw the apathy up close. I have voted in every election since I was 18. My daughter is almost 22. She was very keen to vote against Trump last election. This year we had a very important and close Governor election. I reminded her about Election Day and she got frustrated with me like I was bothering her. This year voting meant nothing to her.
There are people out there that pay absolutely no attention to politics. They don’t read papers, they don’t watch network or cable news, their social media feeds are filled with nothing but family photos and cute animal videos.
They know NOTHING about politics. OK, almost all of them know who the President is at any given moment. The VP, maybe. The probably know that there are Democrats and Republicans and they may know which of those parties hold the White House.
And that’s it. They don’t know, even broadly, the policy positions of the political parties. They probably know we have a Congress but they don’t know how it’s structured or what it does. They don’t know who represents them in Congress. They may know that “the government” sometimes does things that they like or don’t like, but they don’t see the relationship to politics.
Seriously, there are people out there that know NOTHING about politics and have never even considered voting.
Our public education system is supposed to be producing people who can participate in our democracy as informed citizens. I guess it fails. I get that some people just don’t care, but it is sad if they don’t even know what it is that they don’t care about.
For several years I have had the 250 students in my first year Canadian history survey course do the questionnaire at politicalcompass.org. The site also tracks the main political parties over several federal elections. The vast majority of the students report they are much further left and much less authoritarian than any of the parties, including the New Democratic Party. That is to say, there is no political party that comes close to reflecting their views as measured by the questionnaire. Why vote for parties who don’t even pretend to represent you?
I find myself in a similar position.
I’ve always voted, but think I’m gonna stop. Just don’t give a shit anymore. I’d mail something in to vote against that asshole Trump, but it wouldn’t matter. My state would defeat him anyway. So it would be a symbolic gesture at best. And I don’t give a fuck.
I make a point of voting in congressional and presidential elections, gubernatorial, atty. gen, SF Mayor and for propositions. I am aware that many of the smaller contests (city and state assemblies, judges, school boards) are in some ways more important than the “big” races for too many reasons to discuss here and now.
I will not vote for a candidate or office that I know nothing about and I do not have the attention span or time to deeply research all of those tiny elections so I end up not voting for those positions. This can mean that I skip an entire off-year election but its pretty rare because here in CA there’s almost always a ballot initiative or something.
I haven’t read this thread yet (if you have a problem with that I can explain to you why that’s necessary for me) so I don’t know which way the Doper Winds are blowing and therefore can’t fashion an appropriate echo chamber “me too” answer. My guess is that in general, the DopeHive prefers folks to vote for every last little assistant dogcatcher with no data or research needed at all as long as you vote Democrat.
I’m not about to vote GOP (it would take a hell of an individual to get me to) but I’m not going to vote without understanding the people/issues.
Politics is the art of controlling your environment.
Or handing that control to someone else.
Vote.
So many of our elections are structured in such a way that most people’s votes really are meaningless. Getting away from first past the post would minimize this particular argument.
I can understand why people become discouraged and stop voting when it seems their votes don’t matter.
We’re “Ds” living in a county that is overwhelmingly “R.” We vote every time, in elections big and small, but our votes are at best protest votes. People here don’t care about a candidate’s qualifications or even a shady personal history as long as they have an “R” next to their name. My congressman has figured prominently in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election - and in his several terms has done zilch for the people of this district - but he’s re-elected every time, though the last two elections have been a little closer due to recent redistricting. When my wife and I vote, the only satisfaction we get is knowing that our two votes cancel-out those of a couple of know-nothings who consistently vote for candidates who do nothing for them.
If and when you actually do read this thread, I think you’ll find that it contains a lot of nuanced and empathetic exploration of the reasons why many people don’t vote. (A discussion to which your little bit of asinine party-sniping contributed nothing of value.)
My ex-father-in-law doesn’t vote, hasn’t since he got back from Vietnam in '69 or '70. 50 years later and he’s still upset at the way he was treated by the government while he was over seas, and when he got home. I don’t understand it, being 50 years removed, but I don’t have his experiences. In fact, he hates dealing with the government so much, that my ex and I had to twist his arm, and raise our voices to convince to him to use veteran benefits when he went back to school for his masters degree.