turn out

[nadinbrzezinski]

well I have just finished comparing notes with my brother in law, and it SEEMS it will be low. Whether this is a self fulfilling prophecy or not (the press kept saying such) is a good question. But I reached a sad conclusion. Folks if elections were suspended as of tomorrow, most Muricans would not notice, or care... this is how poor our civic education is. Yes... they have won. With a non participating population, they can do whatever the bloody hell they want to do...

[Wheezy]

1. where are you? n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. San Diego

[Wheezy]

4. good grief.

Would that be the Cunningham district, by chance?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. no and no

[MikeH]

3. I heard them expecting not a great turnout at my voting precinct today

And I am in the CA 50th district, and voted for Francine Busby.

[Selatius]

5. Voter participation has dropped continuously since the 1960s

After Viet Nam and Watergate and various crimes and atrocities committed in our name, a feeling of hopelessness and cynicism has never truly been defeated. It's gotten even worse with election fraud, which is old news if one talks to members of minority communities.

I can't blame it on any particular element, but it seems the entire system is helping to drive down participation. The two-party structure of government, the power of the president to act unilaterally, and winner-take-all voting systems disenfranchise many voters.

Ultimately, I feel our way of governing is simply unsustainable for much longer. We have separated political issues from economic issues. The notion of politics in US society is not considered the same a pocket-book issues many families and individuals face everyday.

Many families and individuals are acutely aware of financial issues that affect them and act accordingly, but whether Al Gore is boring or whether George W. Bush is stupid has no relevance on the former.

Perhaps if society was dominated by worker co-ops, partnerships, and small businesses instead of multinational corporations, then people would participate more as a form of "industrial democracy" would take form where pocket-book issues equal political issues because people, in a very real sense, are given a direct role in how the economy and thus the nation is run whenever they go to work and decide how the co-ops are run.

Bringing democracy into the workplace is an idea that is rapidly approaching its time.

[bobbieinok]

7. read some years ago that there was a careful plan by the RW and the

religious right to dominate campaign discussions with topics most people don't really care all that much about. Then they think that their vote doesn't matter b/c no one is talking about or will do anything about the problems that really concern them. And the result is that only the True Believers will turn out to vote and carry the day for whatever issue they care about.

(I think this was in a article in the NY Review of Books.)

I find this view quite probable.

[SCDem]

8. I think labeling states red or blue

actually has a devestating effect on voter turn out.