Voter Participation

Sylvia Rust

5/5/2020

Voter Participation

Every time I go to vote in a local, primary election, there is no line. I vote at a church in a lower-middle class neighborhood. There are usually two people working -- someone to run the “Republican booth” and the “Democrat booth”. It takes me about five minutes to cast a ballot. Even during the primary in 2016, there were no people, despite there being a contested democratic ticket. Is there something to be said about my neighborhood, or is this a bigger issue than just in my district? About half of Americans do not participate in elections, and even fewer Americans participate in volunteering, organizing or donating to political campaigns and organizations. Dionne writes that it is very easy to talk about politicians badly without having much context to your argument, often people will speak badly towards a political figure based on which political party they are a part of. 

People will say that the divisive world we live in today is negative and because of the use of internet news, but all of this is based out of the riots and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and Women’s Movement created a divisive political system that made people question and change their political ideation. There are arguments that state that your socio-economic status, free time, or education level can impact your willingness to vote/volunteer, but in truth, it breaks down into -- do you view your vote and participation useful to protect your interests or because of having a duty to fulfill? Participation in the United States could be greatly improved by viewing voting as a duty and in your own interest.

Those that are politically active are often partisan in nature. Today, people view each other as hippies or warmongers. These names that are being called have been used since the Vietnam War, when younger, new left members called the Vietnam War new imperialism while the other was worried about the Red Scare, thus unbothered by the murder of the Vietnamese because their deaths meant their protection. 

Verba, Schlozman and Brandy’s 1995 “Beyond Ses: A Resource Model of Political Participation” questions; why don’t people participate in politics? Verba et al stated that the reason is they can’t, they don’t want to, or nobody asked”. Arguably, it is often all three. Sometimes it’s about money and some civic skills that socio-economic status model can impact participation, sometimes it’s about time and other civic skills. Verba argues that education can give people political interest and civic skills. With higher income comes more monetary resources thus more reason to participate in the political system. 

Political participation can come from stratification theories from sociology or individual choice perspectives from economics. Verba states that free time isn’t based on socio-economic status but instead on circumstances -- in one of their graphs, it shows that those who make more money theoretically have more time while those with more have less free time, but including information about having people to care for (children, parents, etc), extra jobs, etc impacts more than the amount of money made. Verba, Schlozman and Brandy found that the answer really lies in interest. As far as participation goes, interest has a greater impact than education; however, education often yields interest and participation. People with money are often giving/donating money and thus feel politically active, despite not actually organizing or volunteering. 

On Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam, Vedantam interviews Eitan Hersh on the topic of  “Passion Isn't Enough: The Rise Of 'Political Hobbyism' in the United States” Hersh describes his memory of his dad where he used to read news, he says now, his dad just watches cable news. When Hersh asked his dad while he watched the news, he said “It’s an act of civic virtue to stay informed” Eitan Hersh is skeptical of this claim. Even though his Dad feels this is right to him, what his dad is doing, instead of reading the paper but just watching cable news is called hobbyism. His dad is not politically involved, nor does he know as much anymore about politics as he once did, but he is paying attention to the news, just not actively. The problem with cable news (and following the news online) is that it becomes like a sports league where you’re rooting for one person/group and against another. For Hersh, he says that politics is about acquiring power, but the political news in US is more shallow than before, it’s emotionally satisfying political knowledge, not to do anything to activate membership in the political system. When politics is not going the way they want, they are upset and unhappy but they are joyful when they do. Politics has become about craft and sharing memes, and less about actually having discussions.

When you’re politically active the question of political participation is about, instead of hating other people, can you move them? For activists, the question of what they are concerned with that can be used to leverage them is the most important part of politics, but for most Americans, it’s about “owning the libs” or “educating the right”. 

People who donate money to a political candidate are often affluent and the question asks -- do they want to talk about politics or actually serve a political goal? Arguably, both but how much is just purely entertainment. Big donations are nice and affluent people do help candidates, but small money donations are what truly help politicians. Hersh says, for example, Congressman Wilson interrupted Barack Obama during a conference and in return got $2M in donations. Donald Trump has most small money donations. It is important for politicians to respond to short-term demands of hobbyists to keep their support. 

In Eitan Hersh’s article for The Atlantic, “College-Educated Voters Are Ruining American Politics”, he elaborates on his interview with Vedantam and states that white people spend more time reading and thinking about politics while black and Latinx people spend times the amount of white people volunteering and organizing. For black people and Latinx people, politics cannot be a game for them, as policies can be life or death for them. Hersh gives the example of Noch, the Ukrainian old man, upset about new policies in the 1990s excluding resident immigrants from receiving welfare. He organized and registered 300 people to vote -- because it mattered and impacted them. 

In David Campbell’s Why We Vote, he describes the reason he decided to study “why we vote” by interviewing a woman, Traci, who was the only person to vote in her precinct in Boston. Traci was raised in a town with 67% voting in the 1992 election +12% than the national average. Traci’s reasoning of it being her civic duty comes from Tocquevillian theory, but Campbell states that many people vote out of their own interest, which is based on Madison’s Federalist 10. 

The question of why people don’t vote comes down to -- they don’t feel like they need to. Politics is so divisive that people that are uninvolved feel embarrassed by their lack of knowledge or passion so they just disengage. Often people who are uninvolved in politics will be involved in other organizations -- like churches, unions, clubs, etc but still be unwilling to vote. What needs to happen is a call to action to encourage ALL Americans to vote, not based on SES, wealth or education level, but because being involved in politics fulfills a right and duty and voting is always based on your interests and beliefs. Americans need to know that local elections, rather than national elections, are important and impact your life the most. If people became more invested in local chapters and organizing, their political engagement would be more impactful and meaningful than making memes online. Taking charge of your own political engagement rather than focusing on anyone else’s will be helpful for democracy.

Works Cited

Brady, Henry E., et al. “Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation.” American 

Political Science Review, vol. 89, no. 2, 1995, pp. 271–294., doi:10.2307/2082425.

Campbell, David E. Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life. 

Princeton University Press, 2010.

Hersh, Eitan. “College-Educated Voters Are Ruining American Politics.” The Atlantic, Atlantic 

Media Company, 20 Jan. 2020, 

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/6052

12/.

Vedantam, Shankar, et al. “Passion Isn't Enough: The Rise Of 'Political Hobbyism' in the United 

States.” NPR, NPR, 10 Feb. 2020, 

www.npr.org/2020/02/10/804612601/passion-isnt-enough-the-rise-of-political-hobbyism-in-the-united-states.