Q&A Friday #42: Why Don’t More People Care About Voting?

by John Hawkins | June 16, 2006 9:51 am

Question: “Why is the majority of the American populace both uniformed and lethargic when it comes to voting?” — godhasstolenmyheart

Answer: 1) We live in a rich, prosperous country with a boundless number of alternative activities that people can engage in to pass the time.

2) Politics is very complex and it takes a lot of time and effort to truly understand it.

3) Now add to those two facts a party system which, despite our partisan grandstanding, features two parties a lot of people think are too much the SAME, not too different.

Put it all together and you get a lot of people who just don’t care that much about politics.

Personally? Although I do think there are big differences between the parties and think that who gets into office is extremely important, I’m not one of these people in the “vote or die” crowd. It would be great if everyone were as riveted by politics as the sort of political junkies who read blogs (if only because it would mean my audience would get bigger), but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards and it’s OK with me.