It seems that most non-voting twenty-somethings fall into three categories (Politically that is): those that are disgusted with political zealots, those who don't care because their vote "doesn't count anyway," and the third (the newest group) think that the results do not effect them.
"Elections are going to happen whether or not we vote. And the people who are elected will make decisions on issues large and small. The same is true for the various referenda and regulations put forward by our states and municipalities. The vast majority of these decisions won’t affect the vast majority of us directly. But each affects somebody, and there’s the rub:
Whether you’re personally motivated by a given issue or candidate, do you to learn what’s at stake in your community’s life, and then pull the lever?
That’s why it’s important to remember that elections are about
people—and don’t let anyone get away with saying it doesn’t matter who wins. That’s always a cop-out. It may be that no candidate feels completely satisfying to vote for, but your satisfaction isn’t the point of voting.
The point is making an informed decision about the person you think will best serve your neighbors."
3 comments:
well said. honestly, the most convincing argument i have ever personally heard to get out and vote.
Still has a good bit of truth to it:
"In this new society there has come about a situation in which many who have lost faith in prevailing loyalties have not acquired new ones, and so they pay no attention to politics of any kind. They are not radical, not liberal, not conservative, not reactionary. They are inactionary. They are out of it. If we accept the Greek definition of the idiot as an altogether private man, then we must conclude that many American and Soviet citizens are now idiots. This spiritual condition--and I choose the phrase with care--is the key to many contemporary problems as well as to much political bewilderment. Intellectual 'conviction' and moral 'belief' are not necessary, in either the ruled or the rulers, for a ruling power to persist and even to flourish. The prevalence of mass indifference is surely one of the major political facts about the Western societies today" (The Causes of World War III, 1958, pp. 81-82).
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality” -Dante
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