Why We Don’t Vote

Why do we have such a large number of people who do not participate in the democratic process? In a typical Presidential election voter turnout was recorded as anywhere from as low as 26% (in 1824) to as high as 81% (1876). Voter turnout between 1840 and 1916 was consistently over 60%. 1968 was the last time turnout hit a high of 60%.

These are dismal numbers. It goes a long way to explain why there is such a deafening hush across the land.

Citizens worry more about the struggle for daily survival than about the struggle for world power, much as we did in 1900. As well we should. World power is the realm of the power elite, I dare say the rest of us could not care less as long as we survive comfortably. Very little has changed since 1900 except where we live and who holds political power. Sixty percent of the nation was rural in 1900 and the home was the primary unit of production. That number has steadily decreased over the years as immigrants migrated to the U.S. seeking industrial jobs in the East and the Midwest.

As urbanization grew and primary household income shifted to factory jobs, convenience became increasingly important. This is where the role of corporations grew. What was once a nation of small farmers, shopkeepers, and mill owners had become a land of industrial giants whose size dwarfed every other social and political institution. Many of us today see the power shift from the individual to those industrial giants as crippling our ability to obtain and hold onto the American Dream.

We now long for a simpler time, a time of less government involvement in our lives, a time of higher moral standards, and a time when what was best for the family unit went hand-in-hand with what was best for the nation.

Corporations now hold the primary focus of our government. That focus lies in bolstering the global marketplace. A marketplace where the role of the American worker has been systematically lessened to the point that we no longer have any real political power. Power lies in the accumulation of money, and that money is in the hands of corporations. Small businesses struggle, the family unit struggles, corporations flourish.

More and more citizens have come to realize that their vote really amounts to very little. Many of us can no longer comprehend, nor wish to contribute to, the massive amounts of campaign dollars required to participate in presidential elections when we know everything runs in favor of corporations vs. the individual.

If, by some miracle, someone steps up and can turn things around to where the American voter can regain the power we once had to make a difference, others may follow and voters may return to the polls. What are the chances of this happening?

We citizens see the writing on the wall. We are no longer a part of this political system. This is why we don’t vote.