Phyllis Bush is a retired teacher in Indiana. She is a co-founder of Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, and a board member of the Network For Public Education.
She writes:
“Many politicians are beholden to their base in order to be re-elected. Because so few people have traditionally voted, especially in off years, unhappy voters are hugely influential in setting the political agenda for the rest of us. Since those unhappy folks are mad about nearly everything, they choose candidates and instruct them to cut taxes and to obstruct governance.
“Then when nothing gets done, we are all angry, and we blame it on everyone but ourselves, because those who voted, voted for obstructionists and hard liners, and the rest of us stayed home and complained about our votes not counting. We should hardly be shocked since this is what we get from our apathy.
“Instead of looking for solutions to deal with the serious issues facing us, we get distracted by non-issue threats like transgender bathrooms rather than real issue threats like repairing our infrastructure or dealing with inadequate funding of our social services. This vicious cycle continues because rather than telling their constituents the truth about issues and about choices that need to be made to solve these issues, politicians appeal to our baser selves by sowing seeds of discontent and by concentrating on wedge issues rather than on the compromises needed for governance.
“The bottom line is that it is our own fault because we want easy answers to the complexities of life. We are willing to believe what we are told without questioning anyone who reinforces our pre-conceived notions. We are willing to rant and to complain and to blame. So, we sit at our keyboards and angrily click on the latest topic that annoys us, and we periodically rant about the latest slight that angers us–whether it is personal or political.
“If anything is ever to change, we need to get off our asses to do the hard work of living in a democracy. We need to get informed, to get engaged, to get involved, to think, and to hold our elected officials to the same standard as we would hold our friends and families.
“Rather than waiting for superman, we need to channel our own inner strength and roll up our sleeves to do what is necessary to change the world.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Democratic party is suffering from a systemic malaise. They have lost their identity and way. I fear they may implode before the Republicans. I live in a very conservative military community. When I go to the polls, I see lines of old white people in wheelchairs carrying oxygen tanks in order to vote. Republican voters are loyal, and same cannot be said of most Democrats. That is one reason they always lose midterm elections.
If the Democrats want to start winning, they need to start inspiring voters. They did this with Obama, although much of the reason was his presence and the color of his skin. Instead of hope and change, we got more neoliberal policies. Young people want to see the party move to the left. Bernie Sanders inspired and excited them. If the DNC wants to capture any of Bernie’s momentum, they are going to have to abandon their neoliberal agenda. Neoliberal policies are holding this nation back and increasing income inequality. It is not what the voters want, and the young people want to see a more progressive platform. If Democrats fail to get the message, they run the risk of seeing a third party emerge.
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I agree with Phyllis Bush and have worried for years about how the media and the politicians keep us distracted with niche issues that affect only about 10% of the population (e.g. “abortion” which really should be addressed as “choice”, and “transgender bathrooms,” etc.)
It would be of far greater benefit to all if the conversation was focused on what affects us all such as universal health care and education, foreign policy and the economy. When voters are distracted by issues that are not meaningful to the majority, and when potential voters prefer to think about who will win The Bachelor, the nation suffers.
I find as I age, I do not believe in making voter registration easier as with ‘motor/voter’ for if one is not even up to going online or filling out a card you can get at every post office to register to vote, then what kind of educated voter will you be? Without knowing the issues, and understanding them in depth, elections become merely a ‘crap shoot’ and we get the worst sort of laws passed and also the worst sort of legislators.
In California this election season, we will have over 18 ballot measures to vote on, plus all the local issues, and a vast array of candidates including judges who few voters have heard of. The system is broken, and the populace is mainly ignorant. No wonder our nation is such a mess.
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A distraction with minor social gains keeps the electorate from addressing the big picture. This has been Obama’s strategy from the start. If Hillary thinks she can ride this wave, she is sadly mistaken. The substantive issues are economic. If the DNC continues to ignore the electorate, the young people are ready to leave them in the dust with only their fradulent neoliberal ideology to comfort them.
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Agree completely, dear friend Retired Teacher.
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If all the Americans eligible to vote voted what would that mean?
Obama won the 2012 election with 332 electoral votes and a popular vote of more than 65.9 million.
But there are almost 219 million Americans eligible to vote and only 146.3 million are registered to vote, and in 2012, only 126.1 million registered voters voted.
That means almost 93 million eligible voters didn’t vote but Obama won the popular vote with only 65.9 million votes.
The 93 million eligible voters in the U.S. that didn’t vote in 2012, could have made history and actually elected someone that is not owned by corporate America.
Sure, we had Obama running for the Democratic Party and Mitt Money for the GOP, but what about all the other choices?
I wonder if the 93 million eligible voters that didn’t vote would have wanted to vote for one of the candidates of the other four parties if that candidate was on the ballet in their state:
Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org/
Jill Stein of the Green Party
http://www.gp.org/
Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
Ricky Anderson of the Justice Party
http://www.justicepartyusa.org/
Eligible voters that don’t vote because they are lazy and/or think their vote doesn’t count guarantees more of the same old crap we keep getting from the two major parties, and they shouldn’t just vote for president but for every other elected office on their ballet.
And turn to sites like Vote Smart and all the major fact check sites to become informed instead of going with the lies they like to hear the most. For instance, Donald Trump is the emperor of lies and most if not all of his supporters are not voting for the truth but are voting for the lies they want to hear.
http://www.justicepartyusa.org/
http://www.technorms.com/454/get-your-facts-right-6-fact-checking-websites-that-help-you-know-the-truth
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The biggest problem of all may be the FPTP (first past the post) voting system. It guarantees only two parties, and lesser evil voting.
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It’s ROCKY Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City (he was the mayor when the Olympics were here).
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Well stated, Phyllis!
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The above is well stated but I would add another.
Way too many people, including some in this blog are one issue only voters. Everyone has issues important to them and no one politician is going to be able to satisfy everyone. One must choose those who fit most of the issues important to us all and as noted above, research deeply. There are still voices which are independent and seek to find out the facts. Then vote.
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Most of us did that, Gordon, and look where it got us. Most of us who write here were for Bernie…but the DNC was for Billary from the get go…and Wasserman-Schultz got the unions to endorse her way too early on….it was a FIX by the Clintons and the traditional party hacks.
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This just came to me…most appropriate today…particularly on California Indian genocide.
————————————————————————————
The Daily Kos Liberation League features highly recommended posts about racial justice, gender equality, and LGBTQ rights.
• On the 140th anniversary of Custer’s well-rememb ered demise, why is California genocide forgotten?
• SCOTUS’ 4-4 split on Obama’s immigration actions not t he final word, even if it blocks them for now
• Affirmative action is constitutional, says Supreme Court
• People of color and the future of the Democratic Party
• There’s no such thing as a safe space: Grieving after Orlando
• President Obama designates first national LGBT monument at the site of Stonewall
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On the 140th anniversary of Custer’s well-remembered demise, why is California genocide forgotten?
Hope this link works….an important read, especially for history teachers.
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Cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/We-Must-Make-Our-Democracy-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Agenda_Blogger_Democracy_Democracy-Decay-160704-714.html#comment605226
with my MUST READ commentary… go there and see the links to so much that led to the present situation that Phyllis describes…. TRUST ME… THE LINKS ARE WONDERFUL.
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Blaming the public for their disaffection with the electoral process is not too different from blaming students when they do not learn history.
Blaming politicians when they cannot inspire people to vote seems a lot like blaming teachers when students do not learn.
We have all heard all of these approaches to the problem of ineffective government.
Maybe the problem is blaming itself.
Almost everyone would blame Andrew Jackson for the 1836 Indian Removal Act. Some parts of the country blame slave holders for the Civil War. My father blamed moneyed interests for the American entry into World War II. My uncle blamed Communists for the turbulent political voices in the civil rights movement. My good friend blames Obama for turning America into a second rate nation.
In all of these examples, the political leaders were hamstrung by forces way bigger than those who blamed ideas or individuals understood.
Can anyone name the Colorado governor who invited displaced Japanese-American citizens to settle in the San Lius valley of Colorado? How about the southerner that rammed through the civil rights legislation in 1964 and 65? What about the guy who spirited the accused rapist out of the local county jail so the mob would not lynch him?
One of the major problems in our political system is that unpopular decisions by good people are often punished at the ballot box. This is a part of the one-issue politics alluded to in some of the responses above. That Colorado governor? Forced out of office. Never mind that you can still find neighbors of the descendants of those model citizens that came from California who know and love them. He lost his political life.
Unless we insulate politicians from the evil inflicted on them by one issue politics, we will continue to elect people who drive wedges between groups to win rather than people who seek to unite a diverse nation. There are many things Obama has done I oppose and some I support. I am correct about some of these things and incorrect about others. So is he. I am repulsed by those who revile him for everything, amazed at those who believe in his every word. Same with his predecessor, and his.
Maybe Rodney King had it right. We need to learn to get along with each other.
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When people don’t vote, they get the government they deserve, not the government they need
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But we must vote based on broad policy and philosophy, not any single issue.
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