I’ve gone back and forth about whether to publish this, but it feels frivolous to publish anything else right now and disingenuous to publish something more optimistic.
Below is a response I wrote in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections. At the time, my motivation was to defend my generation against yet another spurious accusation; the comment thread I refer to in the title was populated primarily by baby boomers and gen-xers, and it seemed like the people the argument was actually about should be fairly represented. As such, my response focused mainly on disproving the claim that millenials, as a generation, were less likely to vote (the article doesn’t explicitly make this claim, but it was inevitably what the argument became about).
I do, though, list reasons why some people might be more likely to vote than others, focusing on acculturation, encouragement, comfort, and convenience. But there are other factors that I gesture toward but don’t really talk about, and that’s what I want to address here, because times have changed.
As I write this, the United States is the leader in COVID-19 cases and deaths. As we continue to fail, on both a governmental and social level, to collectively deal with the problem, the pandemic stretches on with no clear end in sight, and social cohesion is breaking down. Meanwhile, protests across the country in response to police violence have been met with police violence, and while some of these protests have had varying degrees of success, the recent federal presence in Portland, OR, may foreshadow a nationwide totalitarian crackdown on free speech. And it’s not Trump voters who are being kidnapped by unidentified federal agents. Assuming we can even have open polls in November, and there are still people around to go vote at them, what is their non-fascist option? A sundowning centrist who has repeatedly told people not to vote for him. Oh, and in case you forgot, climate change is still a thing. A thing that we have maybe 10 years to deal with, and which requires fundamental shifts in our economy and infrastructure.
If people aren’t planning on voting in November, it might be because they’re isolated and depressed. It might be because they don’t think Biden can win. It might be because they don’t care about a country that has made it clear it doesn’t care about them. It might be because the country is falling apart and they don’t think it can be put back together. It might be because they’re being held without due process for an indefinite amount of time by unidentified federal agents. It might be because their vote doesn’t count due to gerrymandering and/or the Electoral College. Optimistically, it might be because they see revolution as the only viable way to enact the radical changes needed to deal with all of this and still have time to address to the coming climate catastrophe.
And if you ask me why you should vote in November, the only reason I can give you is that if Trump wins it will be worse than if he doesn’t, and I’m not even 100% sure about that because there could always be a civil war.
I also want to address one more thing. In the fallout of the 2016 election, there were many takes saying non-voters and/or third-party voters “elected Trump,” and we’re sure to see this claim come around again this year. If you look at the data, though, one thing is absolutely clear: Trump was elected by old, rich, white, Christian men, and if he wins again that’s who to blame, not the disenfranchised, the disaffected, and the disillusioned.
Oct 31, 2018
Reply to a Comment Thread on a Post About This Article, Which Post Was Then Deleted in the Three Hours It Took Me to Write This, and I’ll Be Damned If I’m Gonna Let This All Go to Waste
I was joking with a coworker today (actually yesterday, I’ll come back to that) about how English majors post-college are thrust into a world where the only things they can subject to critical analysis are stupid bits of marketing copy on the back of overpriced baubles they sell to people who don’t need them and probably won’t even use them. Also, the only things we have to stay up way too late writing are Facebook arguments.
SO HERE WE GO:
— I’m a young person (24) and I’ve voted in 4 elections. I say this less to be all “See, some of us vote,” and more to just let you know where I’m coming from. That being said, I can speak to some of the reasons why I’ve voted:
1.) Voting has always been part of the culture around me. My K-8 school held mock elections (at my school it was Nader vs. Gore, Bush barely even placed third). That school and my high school were both polling places. It seemed every house in the city had yard signs come election time. Voting was a given, just like going to college—neither of which is true in every community.
2.) My parents didn’t just encourage me to vote; voting in my first election was a family event. We walked to the polls together (this time at the school where I used to catch the bus), we stood in line together, and when we got inside they pointed out how the whole process worked. Later, they helped me fill out the forms to request an absentee ballot, and my dad dropped them off at the county clerk’s office.
3.) The great state of Oregon mailed me my ballot for the 2018 midterms just because I have an Oregon driver’s license. Didn’t even have to fill out separate forms. It came with a voter’s pamphlet containing info on all the candidates and proposals, and a sheet that stated each proposal as written and then went into “this is what will happen if it passes, this is what will happen if doesn’t pass” and the projected costs. My roommates and I just hung out in our living room and went over everything together, then (privately) filled out our ballots in the comfort of our own home. All states should make it this easy to be an informed voter. (Also, apparently if you mail your ballot without a stamp the Postal Service is supposed to still send it (probably because otherwise that would be like a poll tax), so not having stamps is a BS excuse. I’ll come back to that.)
4.) The philosophical/psychological stuff. I may or may not come back to this because it’s clearly a sticking point for a lot of people and there’s a lot to unpack, but suffice it to say that it’s less that I believe my personal vote matters (on a national/probably even state scale, but local elections can be won or lost by a handful of votes) and more that I believe that voting in general matters(ish, which is where the unpacking will happen if I have time) and I’ve been able to get over my own nihilism to vote in what, in my case, have been relatively low-stress situations. (Another fun fact: when I voted in 2016 (again at the school where I used to catch the bus) one of the volunteer poll supervisors was literally my best friend’s mom. I’m just saying it could have been a lot more unfamiliar and stressful.)
— So let’s move on to this article about the 12 non-voters. Well, 12ish, since if you actually read it it turns out a few of them do in fact intend to vote. That doesn’t discount the larger issue, I’m just saying this maybe isn’t the finest piece of journalism out there. Also, many of the people have voted before, which is a point I’ll come back to if I come back to the philosophical/psychological stuff.
— The quotes people have been pulling from this article are mostly from the bolded statements, and mostly from the top of each interview. Which kind of bugs me because there’s a bit more nuance in there if you actually read the whole thing. For example, the “I hate mailing stuff; it gives me anxiety” guy: turns out he’s registered to vote and (in direct opposition to this article’s title) is “probably voting in the midterms.” Also, if you look past the bolded bits, dude makes some good points. “You can’t build a policy around calling people irresponsible. You need to make people enthusiastic and engaged.” (See, I can do it too.) The establishment core of the Democratic Party has made most of their post-2016 campaigning based on the idea that if you don’t vote for them you’re voting for the president; it’s part scolding, part lesser-of-two-evils. One of the reasons progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have had success is because they actually stand for something, not just against something. There are good points like this throughout the article, if you read the whole thing.
— Also, a side note to the “Don’t they know this will affect their future” people: Do you eat as healthy as you should? Get as much exercise? Go to the dentist, to therapy, get enough vitamin D, socialize, moderate your drinking, smoking, etc. etc. etc.? Did you when you were in your 20’s? Maybe don’t be surprised that people don’t always act in (what you think is) their own best interest. I’m not saying don’t criticize, I’m just saying hold the shock please.
— ARE YOU READY TO NUUUUUUMMMMMBBBBEEEEEEEERRRRRRR?!
1.) (Admittedly, the following numbers don’t track midterms, but my guess is it would all be the same, just lower.) Voter turnout among 18-29-year-olds has been lower than any other age group since at least 1980. So the problem isn’t new. The 18-29 turnout in 2016 was 46.1%, about average for the 1980-2016 range. So the problem isn’t at a significantly low point, let alone the lowest point; that would be 1996, which was also the lowest point for every other age group, immediately following the highest point for all age groups in 1992. Unlike other age groups, 18-29 has been trending significantly upward since ’96, and is the only group to increase from 2012 to 2016. So things are looking up. Source for all this: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2017/05/voting_in_america.html (specifically https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/press-kits/2017/voting-and-registration/figure04.png)
2). In 2016 18-35-year-olds (“millennials”) made up about 31% of the electorate (source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/03/millennials-approach-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-electorate/), with about 40% of the electorate not voting (reports of voter turnout in 2016 ranged from about 58% to about 61%, so I just went with 60%). 18-35 voter turnout was about 49% in 2016 (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/31/millennials-and-gen-xers-outvoted-boomers-and-older-generations-in-2016-election/). Doing some quick math, that means about 60.5% of the non-voting electorate was older than 35. So it’s not just us, or even mostly us. (That’s maybe beside the point but I think is worth keeping in mind before you condescend to an entire generation.)
3.) According to the viewer demographics for The Big Bang Theory (the 2nd most watched show in America at time of writing, behind the controversy-driven Roseanne comeback), 19% of 18-34-year-olds surveyed say they watch the show every week, compared to 23% of 55+ and 26% of 35-54.* The point being…
— Stupid doesn’t have an age limit. Okay, so a magazine found 12(ish) young people willing to state their sometimes embarrassingly bad reasons for not voting. The Big Bang Theory is watched by 18.7 MILLION PEOPLE on average. I’m sure you could find 12 18-29-year-olds to tell you it’s great because Sheldon is so smart and the show treats its female characters so well and something about stamps. But they’d still only be representing a small fraction of their age group. I’m not saying there aren’t real concerns being raised by this article (I’m also not saying everyone in this article is necessarily stupid or even wrong, but that’s back in the stuff I said I might come back to that it’s looking increasingly likely I won’t come back to). I’m just saying maybe don’t judge a whole generation based on 12 random people whose opinions someone published because they knew they would generate controversy.
— Also, a bit that I planned to talk about more was how I think this is maybe representative of larger issues that affect the whole body politic, so one point in brief: the voting-as-identity-instead-of-duty thing is, I think, a societal shift, and likely related to the increased Right-vs-Left sectarianism that’s infected all politics.
Anyway, I spent three hours writing this last night and then lost all of it and had to spend another hour re-writing it this morning (thus today becoming yesterday) and I’m about sick of this thing and as far as I know I’m not getting a grade, so I’m done. And obviously I’m not coming back to whatever I said I’m coming back to that I haven’t already come back to.
* I had a source for the BBT stats but now it wants me to pay $49/month to access it and there’s a lot I’ll do for a joke but not that.
Certain of Eventual Failure 