There is no such thing as voter apathy.
Though I definitely believed there was before a meeting yesterday.
Merriam-Webster describes “apathy” as:
A lack of feeling or emotion; a lack of interest.
And that’s just not what’s happening. People don’t vote, not because they don’t care. They care deeply.
The mom who is working 3 jobs absolutely cares about the cost of groceries and healthcare. She cares about what her child is being taught in school and how much her gas has gone up.
She doesn’t lack emotion, it’s not that she’s disinterested. She just doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.
“Apathy” falls into three buckets
When we boil it down to apathy, it’s easy to think there is no solution.
But there is. There are many.
Let’s start with “despair.” We’ve all felt it. It’s the belief that nothing will change and nothing will get better. Why bother if things are going to stay the same?
My wins are an anecdote for despair. They’re a reminder that change is happening, even if it’s slow, and we are the ones with the power to create that change.
We all have the power to combat despair. And it’s important to share our successes as much as possible, in order to do so.
“Confusion” it’s a bit more technical. A great example is what happened in the Georgia Supreme Court races. The Democratic voter turnout was really high, but the Dem endorsed candidates lost the SCOGA races because it was non-partisan.
When someone is busy or stressed, their only knowledge of politics may be voting. And they’d been taught that if someone is on their ballot they must be a Democrat, so they vote for the incumbent.
Remember, this mom works three jobs. How is she going to learn otherwise? Especially when that’s something she didn’t even know she had to learn?
We have to work on voter education. That has to be a priority.
Explaining how elections work., but also educating people on what each position does.
Which leads to the final reason “ignorance.”
When things go wrong it’s very easy to blame the entire system rather than a specific elected office. But usually it’s pretty specific. A great example is whenever there’s a confirmation vote in the Senate, Dems in the House get yelled at.
The House has nothing to do with nominations of anything. But if you don’t know that then why wouldn’t you yell at those people to make sure they do the right thing?
We need to have more grace for each other and not assume the worst. Not assume that someone is intentionally clueless or doesn’t want to make things better and fight injustice.
If you’re reading this, you’re more informed than most. It’s our job to help combat these things and teach people….
Your vote is your voice and that voice is your superpower!
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
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