Well isn’t it the responsibility of the people to be invested in voting?
When people complain about issues with our representation at any level of the US government, those issues are just symptoms of the root cause that the populace is not engaged in voting.
According to Ballotpedia, non presidential election years have a 20-30% lower turnout than presidential election years which only see about 60% turnout.
National elections are getting more and more gerrymandered, however, with right wing states looking to add more and more barriers to voting that specifically leave out marginalized communities. It is hard to get engaged when your vote has literal lines drawn around so it matters less. Add that to the fact that in the US, election day is not a national holiday, and voting is not required and you get working class and poor folks that literally cannot afford to vote is some areas. The rise of mail in voting is a great thing, but even that is being challenged.
Edit: I will add that in a lifetime appointment, even voting for progressive candidates doesn’t help that much. The appointees of the previous hard right government are there for generations. Fuck lifetime appointments
It’s also a problem (and I think by design) that at least 40,000,000 Americans can’t afford to miss a day’s work (ie, a day’s pay really) and that’s just as true on election days as it is any other day of the week.
Our system is (and has been since its inception) designed to serve the wealthy.
Well isn’t it the responsibility of the people to be invested in voting?
When people complain about issues with our representation at any level of the US government, those issues are just symptoms of the root cause that the populace is not engaged in voting.
According to Ballotpedia, non presidential election years have a 20-30% lower turnout than presidential election years which only see about 60% turnout.
https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_elections If people are engaged and vote out incumbents, we get a better court.
Yes and no. Local elections absofuckinglutely.
National elections are getting more and more gerrymandered, however, with right wing states looking to add more and more barriers to voting that specifically leave out marginalized communities. It is hard to get engaged when your vote has literal lines drawn around so it matters less. Add that to the fact that in the US, election day is not a national holiday, and voting is not required and you get working class and poor folks that literally cannot afford to vote is some areas. The rise of mail in voting is a great thing, but even that is being challenged.
Edit: I will add that in a lifetime appointment, even voting for progressive candidates doesn’t help that much. The appointees of the previous hard right government are there for generations. Fuck lifetime appointments
It’s also a problem (and I think by design) that at least 40,000,000 Americans can’t afford to miss a day’s work (ie, a day’s pay really) and that’s just as true on election days as it is any other day of the week.
Our system is (and has been since its inception) designed to serve the wealthy.
Precisely. It is working as intended to keep a lower class. Capitalism doesn’t work without someone being exploited