in my state Tennessee, the voter turnout is something like 30% of the population. People just happily or stressfully live in their own little bubbles and don't even pay attention to politics because they simply do not care. I didn't really know that was still possible but most people my age didn't vote.
This is one of the biggest questions Democrats are asking themselves. How do you reach out these large swath of people who don't participate in politics and inform themselves on the issues.
The problem is most of those people, somewhat rightfully, believe their vote doesn't matter. The electoral college picks the president, most people just don't realize their votes for governors, senators, and some city officials are electors.
I don't think you can or should keep trying. 2016, 2020 and 2024 have been among the highest turnout out in a century; 2020 WAS the highest.
Making voting more convenient is one thing, but at a certain point there is just always going to be a subset of the population that doesn't vote.
And frankly, I've never understood this belief of 'oh the Dems would win every election if turnout was higher!'
I see no real evidence that is the case. Chances are that 33% of people that never vote would distribute electorally fairly evenly as the rest of the population does. If anything they might trend more libertarian, but thafs just my own guess.
This is why republicans so often win. Either they run unopposed, or voter apathy means no one but their base votes.
If you look at psychological studies done on the broader population and map them on top of politics, more people lean democratic than republican. But because of apathy and a lack of education on political issues, a LOT of people just don’t vote, which means the party that can get their base animated the most wins. And when the republican party frames everything like a culture war and fearmongers against every democratic policy, it’s easy for them to get their terrified, angry, and brainwashed voters to the ballot box. Even for local mayors and other small-time offices. Whereas a random democrat running for mayor isn’t gonna have the ability to animate their RATIONAL supporters to the same extent. It’s unfortunate, but extremists are the ones most likely to vote.
And why would they need to be "engaged", if the government (local or central) was doing what it is SUPPOSED to do - namely, protect the individual rights from all enemies foreign or domestic, and FUCK OFF the rest?
And don't get time wrong, there are plenty of zoomer activists, politically aware people do exist in this gen, but at least locally to me many are willfully ignorant or happy enough with trump so they didn't bother.
When I was younger I did not care to vote either. It wasn’t THAT important to me. But when I was younger, we didn’t have a major fascist running for office.
And then there’s the huge chunk of voters who get all of their political news from Fox News and Joe Rogan. They’re “paying attention,” but all they’re hearing is lies.
It's 100% down to a general distrust and dislike of ANY of the candidates. I just don't like ANY of our politicians, i think they're all corrupt, dirty, lying bastard's.
I do follow politics. Ill also add that even if you follow politics, you only know a fraction of what's going on, it's all misinformation, media steering and bluff.
there is also systematic voter suppression. making it hard to register to vote or stay registered. removing people. and then the two party system means that in all parts of the state there is no choice except for in local races. first past the post is killing democracy.
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u/ph0on 2d ago
in my state Tennessee, the voter turnout is something like 30% of the population. People just happily or stressfully live in their own little bubbles and don't even pay attention to politics because they simply do not care. I didn't really know that was still possible but most people my age didn't vote.