this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Politics
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6 million registered voters didn't even bother. One could argue that they're just fine with, if not enthusiastic about, the current state of affairs. 4 million votes for, 3 million against, 6 million "Meh."
I've been registered to vote in blue and red states and the barriers to vote in red states are so much higher. Lines are longer, in less convenient locations, registration has to be done earlier, and sometime they might not count your vote or purge a voter directory and you have to check yourself to see if that the case so you can correct it. It's more than people can't be arsed to vote; it is intentionally made as inconvenient as possible.
Vote by mail?
What is that? /s
They've made everything else as inconvenient as possible, that extends to vote-by-mail too. To request a mail ballot in Florida, you literally have to call, mail, or fax an individual person. How fast do those requests get processed? How often do they get denied for BS reasons? What happens if the person's voter registration gets purged between the request for the ballot and receiving the ballot? How often do mail-in ballots just 'disappear'?
There's just so many problems with mail-in that it doesn't feel like a sustainable, reliable replacement for in-person voting.
You're missing a whole lot of people who don't approve but are not served by the alternatives enough to get out there. You may disagree and say they should just vote for the lesser evil, but we see time and time again that just presenting people lesser evils is not effective. They need to have a positive reason to go vote FOR someone, not just negative ones to vote AGAINST someone.
This is just an extended rationalization for apathy. I'm sorry to say, but government is boring. Politicians are boring. An exciting politician is probably trying to sell you a line of unrealistic, unachievable bullshit, and in the system the US has, by the time it gets down to the general election, your choices are Donkey, Elephant, and several flavors of Don't Care. You can have more excitement and a greater sense of choice in the primaries, but voting twice in a year is too much work for even many 'political' people.
If positive messaging got people to the polls, I guarantee you would see positive campaigning: even 10% of the non-voters would be enough to swing any competitive race.
That's absurd. Political apathy doesn't just come out of nowhere. Nearly everyone who doesn't vote will tell you it's because both of their realistic options are out to fuck them, and in most locales they're right. Give them something to hang onto, have a candidate that offers them literally anything other than not being the other guy or not actively making things worse, and a whole lot more will bite. You might think they're wrong for having that apathy, but to be completely honest what you think about them doesn't matter. What matters is getting people moving.
The reason they don't campaign like that is obvious: the things the people want are not what the ruling class will allow. It's foolish to think that politicians are simply optimizing for what gives them the best chance of winning. Those sorts of considerations only happen within the bounds of what their backers allow.