Voting Patterns in the United States
As an article on the Huffington Post’s website put it “People are tired of the same old political song. With no hope of change the trend to not vote is becoming the new majority!” Sadly this is the case as many people claim they “can’t be bothered to vote” or “don’t see the point”. This is especially true with young voters and many white voters as well. Not only are young people not voting, they're not getting involved in the political system in any way. They don't volunteer for campaigns and only a select few run for any elected office. Voter turnout across all ages has been declining, and the U.S. now has on average, the lowest voter turnout in the world (among mature democracies). Voter apathy is slowly inching its way into our culture.
Some of the reasons young people stay away from the polls are in synch with older non-voters, but some are unique to young people. Specifically for young people, there is a decline in the quality of education in urban America, particularly a decrease in civic activities by young people. This leads into the common belief that one's vote matters less so people are less likely to care. People in general are following the news less, and so they are out of touch with politics and public affairs. Above these though there is a popular consensus that politics is dirty business. Many now assume moral and ethical individuals will not run because they choose not to put themselves in positions where the compromises necessary to effectively run a government may contradict their moral or ethical beliefs. All of these issues have created an uniformed and unprepared public who will not be able to continue Democracy as it is currently defined since there will be very few people capable of making an educated decision, thus putting power into the hands of the few without any counter measures.
Recent partisan bickering and scapegoating have not helped our current government’s cause, and only reinforce the low opinion of most