No, You Should Actually Vote

It’s hard to find words to describe how it has felt living through the last 25 or so years of American politics. The best I can do is “soul-numbing.” It’s been overwhelming, disappointing and often scary. It feels like we’re constantly on the precipice of losing a lot, and it’s difficult to tell how much of that is fear mongering or not. In addition, it feels like the ultra-rich and extremists are in control. When you’re beaten over the head with negativity and given bad options, it seems easier to fall into apathy and refuse to participate.

Voter apathy seems to be encouraged by the mainstream media and even social media influencers, especially toward the younger, more liberal viewers. Saying both sides are equally bad and that there’s no reason to care is at best, irresponsible and asinine, and at worst, setting the country up to fail. But that’s a whole other discussion.

Constantly being shouted at to “shut up and vote” also doesn’t really help. Many who did vote in 2016 still ended up displeased due to the electoral college and gerrymandering, and are disillusioned with the whole process. So instead of just being annoying, I’ll try to break down how we’ve ended up in this hellscape and how voting can actually get the United States back to a place of semi-sanity.

The trick is to give a shit about local and state elections and not just the large, grandiose national elections.

I’ll use my home state, Virginia, as an example. According to the 2020 census, we have about 8.6 million residents. Per the Virginia Department of Elections, in 2020 approximately 5.9 million were registered to vote and nearly 4.5 million did so. Pretty good, right? Sure. But check that same link from the Virginia DOE and look at the 2021, 2022, and 2023 voter turnout.

2022 had a slight bump due to the midterm elections, but it’s still not great, especially considering the number of registered voters has generally increased.

I get that school board elections and delegates aren’t exciting and don’t seem important, but they actually impact your daily life more than many of the national shenanigans. They also have an important feature that many overlook - they’re the launching pad for budding politicians who don’t suck.

Nowadays, most politicians had to start from the bottom of the political ladder. President Joe Biden started on the county council for New Castle, Delaware, arguing about roads. A couple of years later, he was running for Senate. If a candidate can make enough of a name for themselves in their local area, their success can propel them to the national stage.

It’s important to vote to get the old, out of touch or extremist candidates out of the way, too. Primaries are used to decide what candidate each party ends up running. These politicians have been skating through for decades solely because their challengers never have enough support. They’re certainly not going to draw attention to this fact because they know it’s the only way they would keep their position and the power that comes with it. If citizens actually paid attention, it’s completely possible to rid ourselves of politicians who no longer or have never worked for us.

Voting can interrupt the status quo and change the United States’ trajectory. It also needs a change of mindset in how we interact with politics and news. An important factor in resetting the feeling of numbness is reevaluating how we interact with news. The news is heavily biased, not just toward specific parties but toward doom and gloom. It will exhaust you with talking heads and opinion editorials that do nothing but encourage the voter apathy or division that’s been plaguing us. Many of these networks are concerned about ratings and therefore money, and nothing gets more ratings than horrible news.

Social media also requires an adjustment. Be wary of anyone attempting to discourage voting or spouting doom. Jokes and quips are fine here and there, but there’s potentially a lot to lose in the future and trying to genuinely dismiss what’s at stake is dangerous. Many accounts (especially on Twitter) seem explicitly set up to discourage certain demographics. It’s important to take any information on social media with a grain of salt. Fact check everything and do your own research. I don't mean YouTube channels or TikTok accounts by John7363686 who films in their car. I mean, looking at a wide range of sources and documents that could challenge what you already believe.

We still have the opportunity to change America’s trajectory. There’s no reason to give up yet. Vote, challenge the status quo, and we’ll get through this. Don’t let America die with apathy.