Uninformed electorate: Micro-turnout for Tuesday’s election signals almost total civic disengagement
Once upon a time, the term “participatory democracy” was a tautology, like saying “an essential necessity.” A democracy that didn’t include the participation of the citizenry would not be much of a democracy. Now the qualifier is a vital distinction. In Texas, it seems, participation in democracy has attained a shameful minimalism. In the run-up to Tuesday’s election, Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson predicted a statewide turnout of 9.5 percent, a figure that subsequent data might prove optimistic. The early vote in Harris County totaled 2.8 percent of all registered voters. If early votes constitute, as they sometimes do, a third of all votes cast, voter turnout here would not reach 9 percent.
OK, so this story is about voting (or the lack of it) Texas in general, and Harris Country in particular, but it could really be about just about Anywhere, USA. Let’s face it; the American’s Sheeple don’t give a rat’s @$$ about politics under the best of circumstances. Midterm elections, though, really manage to bring the slothfulness out of Americans, who are justifiably reknowned for taking democracy for granted. (Who says freedom isn’t free??)
Participatory democracy? Yeah, right. No reasonable person would expect (or likely tolerate) a system in which the vast majority of Americans took an active role. To say that this would be an unwieldy and chaotic system would be something of an understatement. Even so, ANY reasonable person should be ashamed that not even 9% of all eligible voters could be bothered to vote in Texas. This really means that 91% of eligible voters should just STFU, because you just forfeited your right to piss and moan about politics and politicians. If you cannot be bothered to participate and exercise your voice in our democracy, then STFU. You have no right to piss and moan if you don’t like the direction government is taking, because you couldn’t be bothered to cast your vote.
Of course, while the primary responsibility for this sorry state of affairs lies squarely on the shoulders of Americans themselves, government is also part of the problem. Government- on all levels- does a damn poor job of giving Americans reason to care. When pandering, corruption, lies, and propaganda increasingly become the political world’s stock in trade, can you blame Americans for feeling alienated from the process? The worst part of this reality, though, is that this alienation only aggravates matters, leaving us with a class of power-hungry thugs who respect only the naked application of political power for their own self-aggrandizement. (Et tu, Tom DeLay??)
If you don’t like politics and you don’t respect politicians, you’re most likely looking to blame someone for this sorry state of affairs. How about trying this before you get that far: walk into your bathroom and look in your mirror. What you’ll see is the person responsible for the mess we’re in. Not a very nice feeling, is it? Until you and the other 91% can get off your collective ass and find your way to your local polling station, there’s little hope that anything will change.
Yes, Virginia; this is how we end up with an intellectual and moral midget in the White House….
