Just a quick note as to why people at times do not vote

[nadinbrzezinski]

forget the ignorant, against their own best interest and the rest of the lovely talking points people throw here. They are lazy and quite frankly insulting.

I will tell you this people who at times work two to three jobs and worry their sons, and it is chiefly their sons, will be alive at the end of the day, or will be able to come home from the corner store with the gallon of milk, or that they will be able to go to the local fast food place and come home, You want to know why they do not vote?

Their concerns, their needs, their feelings, their live experience is constantly ignored or minimized, or disappeared from the larger conversation, if it even made it to the conversation.

Then they at times hear but if you voted democratic all would be better... care to tell me what party O'Malley is with? How about the current Mayor of Baltimore? Any wants to tell me about my city council member representing some of our most challenging neighborhoods? Actually the three of them? Yes two of them are Democrats (and they are women to boot, and one of them is African American). The third is a hispanic male but democrat. (Never mind these are non partisan offices, but they have not been in reality for a decade or more)

Yet, city hall is yet to fully listen to these potential voters. We tell them that they should try to work within the system and with the system, but we hear it regularly. It is very much independent of party, because the political elites, in both parties, despise the poor. "They don't care, they don't listen."

That phrase summarizes many long conversations over the last two years.

We see it here. We had a thread on the use of the world Thug, which for anybody who has been paying attention, over the last three years, the move to use that word to replace the world nigger by RW politicians, it is a new dog whistle, has been obvious. Yet, some posters here keep denying it. You are doing to that particular poster, and the rest of the folks who happen to be minorities, or those of us who are minorities just not AA, that yes it has happened, your ignoring them feels the same way as my local members of the city council ignoring those potential voters.

Or for that matter the current administration in Baltimore. Yes, they might be making some real changes, we have that problem here, and the local paper might not be reporting it This is what the Mayor said in the morning. Or they might not be doing as much as she thinks they are doing. I am not there, I cannot judge, but in several field interviews from MSNBC reporters and others talking to locals, just like Ferguson, it feels as if I were standing at the park in Mt. Hope talking to local activists and neighbors. The feeling is clear, people do not feel that the folks they at times have elected actually care.

And it is beyond a feeling. There are many studies, that show that if you are black and poor, less if you are hispanic and poor, you will have a hard time getting listened to by politicians. You become a punching bag though. Whether it is by being called welfare queen, or thug, or whatever is the neologism to come in the future.

And no, I will not blame any of my locals who work three jobs and have no time for this silliness for not voting. I know the few who have seen actual good results from pols will be very reliable foot soldiers. But they are far from the majority. As they say, perception is reality.

Though this is more than just perception on whether city hall helps them. Here you go... and if you must ask why people are pissed off... well this is one of the many interlacing causes.

http://www.demos.org/stacked-deck-how-dominance-politics-affluent-business-undermines-economic-mobility-america

http://www.princeton.edu/~bartels/economic.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/why-are-the-poor-and-minorities-less-likely-to-vote/282896/

There is a lot more But I will leave you with this. Many posters here are quite clueless as to how people live or the few opportunities they have, or why they worry.

[upaloopa]

1. I often watch the movie "Mississippi Burning"

and along with posts like your I have been asking myself why did people give up their lives so that others could vote. Surely their days were too busy. They had to work all day then prepare meals from raw food they had to grow themselves. Surely the ballot they got if they could pay the poll tax and pass the verbal exam, did not have anything on it that would improve their outcomes.
But they took the long view that some day there will come a time when they could vote for Black leaders.
Why does the right pass voter suppression laws if people aren't going to vote anyway.
I have little patience with posts like your because they are defeatist. I believe we must look long term and take what little gains we can get today and build on them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Well you have little patience

and I am just telling you the way it is in poor neighborhoods and minority communities. And there is a solution to it where people will actually feel they have a stake, LISTEN to their needs.

We actually walk those streets and talk to people who happen to be working two to three jobs, and who worry about their sons.

I notice you are coming to me from a movie. I am coming to you from the streets. The reality right now is quite different from a hollywood script, as good as the movie was by the way.

People who are living pay check to pay check, or at times worst than that, and have to take loans from sharks, and plead with their elected officials, who ignore them, well after years of that, in some cases decades, they give up.

I recommend you try to have those conversations and leave Mississippi Burning on the DVD player.

I expected nothing less though.

[upaloopa]

6. I was homeless in San Diego but I still voted.

I used my last place of residence.
The movie is pretty historically accurate. It is about freedom summer in 1964 when 3 civil rights workers were murdered. You should see it some time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. You shoudl walk Mt Hope sometimes

and I have watched the movie. Again, it is a movie.

I am bringing you reality and why many people are NOT voting.

I suspect that I will hear more of that as the oligarchy takes hold.

My attitude is actually more cynical than that. I vote to keep in practice.

[m-lekktor]

14. the OP is not condoning not voting, she is explaining WHY people don't with links to explain.

explaining is NOT condoning. Also, Mississippi Burning was much criticized because it portrayed the FBI as the good guys and on the side of the AA's when in reality the FBI, under J. Edgar. Hoover, was racist and considered Martin Luther King the enemy , a communist etc..

[Thinkingabout]

2. My mother worked very hard in her time also, washed clothes on a rub board,

Ironed, worked in the fields, milked the cows, sewed our clothes, cooked, preserved food for the winter and still road in a wagon to vote. This is the drive instilled in her children along with the help of my father.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. And this has none to do with what I just wrote

That is just distraction.

[Thinkingabout]

5. Oh. really, what about the mom who had two jobs?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Re-read it

[Thinkingabout]

17. I did, it said a mom with three jobs. My point was we all got our grievences

But not voting should not be a means to folks changing anything, it does tell the RW it is okay to continue to overlook issues. If they were afraid they would be loosing elections they would listen or would be voted out.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. It went over your head

they are not voting because it is a waste of their time. They hear pretty words,. but noting else from politicians. Carefully listen to some of the magnificent field interviews some reporters have done from both Ferguson and Baltimore. Try to look for the life feeds, before the final cut pro hits the raw tape.

If people want to improve the voting by lower middle class and poor folks, really need to own the fact that pols have not worked for them. And this is irrespective of party. It is not me saying this, but the daily experience of many of these folks.

It starts right now at things like police reform... or even getting good schools. Want some stats? I got 'em.

[Thinkingabout]

21. No, not voting did not go over my head.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. I am sorry that it did go over your head

and as long as you ignore the reasons why people don't bother, it will only get worst.

Congrats.

I will use now the tired talking point many use here, but you know what? Ignoring the structural reasons is part of the problem.

[Thinkingabout]

23. I vote every time because I know those items you mentioned will never change if we dont vote.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I am going to make an assumption a huge one

you are white and middle class.

Though I will suggest what I tell people when they actually ask my opinion... which is not often.

Do not bother with just voting, but you need to remain a noisy little squeaky wheel.

But you are still ignoring why people do not vote. Read the links. If you really want to change that, and it will take YEARS if not outright decades, the structural reasons have to be dealt with.

I just do not expect you to get it... and there are many reasons why I do not expect you to get it.

[Thinkingabout]

29. I am not middle class for sure, a little SS and a minimun wage job to survive.

Lots of us struggle to keep a roof over our head, I did not come from a middle class family either. Had to pull myself by hard working. I worry if I will make it home every night but I still vote.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. So you are commited to voting

but most of the folks we talk to are beyond disappointed. We do a lot of policy and also a lot of civil rights, and police issues.

So I will add the caveat I added before, You want that social security to remain. do more than just voting.

But if you want people who have given up in the process to vote, calling them lazy, or uninformed is not going to make this relevant to their lives. Until politics is relevant, people are truly not going to bother. It matters little how many names people call them.

And politicians truly have no clue how you live, I don't care what party. If you are talking about a council member, they are better about it, but they sill have trouble getting it.

Those three articles are good. I might have to produce my own local version, because to me it matters. (Even if I am the most cynical there is and consider politics the greatest show on earth since citizens united)

[Adrahil]

43. Waste of time my ass.

People who don't because it is a "waste of time" are full of crap. You cant have any impact if you don't vote (other than to let people who DO vote get their way), and if the candidates suck, get involved in your local politics and find candidates who WILL listen.

In my town we managed to completely unseat the "good ole boys" in the local party, and now we have candidates who actually respond. It just takes giving a shit and getting involved.

[nadinbrzezinski]

45. Congrats, must be a really small town

You are doing it, discounting why people have given up. Instead of coming up with how to make it relevant.

[Adrahil]

46. About 80,000. Started small and worked up.

You know what giving up accomplishes? Nothing. Or worse than nothing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. Go tell that to my local residents

I am sure they will love to hear it.

I am just telling you, that as long as this is not relevant... politics has to be relevant as well.

Though trust me, it is extremely relevant to the residents in the better to do areas of town.

[jeff47]

52. Yea! All they need to do is spend the 20 minutes between the second and third job

hosting party meetings! What's so hard about that?!

[sabrina 1]

36. The reality is that half the country doesn't vote. Why do you think that is? Yes, people did die to

have that right, and yes, people should vote. But they don't, there has to a reason why. Just slamming them doesn't change the fact.

The polls show that most Americans don't have much faith in their government.

How do you convince them that they are wrong?

[haele]

50. Community "value" is what matters to the PTB, not individual.

The communities Nadine is talking about - and I live in the areas she is talking about, where there are four major gangs spatting over turf - are forgotten by the city.
The people on the block we lived on in the middle of the worse area of the city with the lowest voter turn-out worked. Actually, many of them still have title to the homes they lived in, because at one time, this was a thriving segregated "black" community, and many of the residents live in the same houses their fathers and grandfathers bought in the 1930's through 1960's.
But - the jobs went away. They went downtown, or to north or east county. Businesses disappeared after the Savings and Loan crash, and never came back.

And most of the households have someone or several someones with a job. - even if those jobs are several part-time jobs supporting one full-time job in a household. A good number of the residents are active in their communities; there is a monthly "Neighborhood Action" meeting, and most of the churches (on average one every third block) have some sort of community service function.

However - the community is still disenfranchised from the city. Frankly the attitude the residents get from the city is that it costs more to actually address the problems and fix them in this community than it does if they just let the existing community disintegrate and people move out so the developers can come in and turn the land into something else.

When "redevelopment" funds are available, they go to the neighborhoods that can attract tourists or where there is a move for "gentrification"; where business will want to invest and the housing values - and tax revenue to the city will increase.
That's not Chollos, or Mt. Hope, or Emerald Hills, where people are living paycheck to paycheck and are not able to keep their WWII era bungalows up, where one roof out of four is patched with blue tarps. Where yards are dusty, full of broken toys, sheds made of pallets, and Rubbermaid bins. Where much of the area is brownfields; the soil itself has enough toxic chemicals that in many locations, no one is allowed to build unless they can take the topsoil out two to six feet deep in the area they need to build and replace it with clean dirt.

These are neighborhoods where many single-family homes are actually multi-generational, because the rents are too damn high. Where most neighborhood streets are like the sidewalks; buckled and cracked, and water infrastructure hasn't been improved over decades - leaks everywhere.

Their adolescent children can't loiter, or the City Gang Details will harass them. The assumption when there is a problem with youth in this neighborhood is that it's gang related, whether it is or not. Have a party, have a beer, want to be loud and happy? The police are on your ass as soon as it gets too loud or rambunctious because of Gangs or something. Unless you're white - but even then, if you look sloppy or homeless, you're "one of them".

Again, this area is disenfranchised from the city because the existing residents don't have as much value as young professional or Navy families - or even refugee and immigrant families, who "owe" the city and the government.

No matter how the people vote, the change is so slight - pretty much lip service. It's almost as if the city wants this community to just go away so they can rebuild a new one without the current residents messing up the gentrification plans. There are good, hardworking people here. They just aren't good enough.

Haele

[Thinkingabout]

51. My point was my mother endured many many hardships but still rode in a wagon to go and vote.

Why are we trying to make excuses for reasons not to vote. People died to secure this right and it I the responsibility of the living to make sure these people did not die in vain. MLK gave his life to make things better for all, why do we forget those who gave their lives for us to be able to exercise the right to vote.

I have had to work hard in my life but I still find it necessary to vote. Let us work to change this attitude and please do not allow the GOP to make decisions we do not like. Elect Democrats and let us get rid of the GOP.

[jeff47]

53. We aren't making excuses. We are explaining why they do not vote.

Your inability to understand the situation they are in is a very large part of the problem.

But understanding it would mean you could no longer blame them for apathy.

Which do you want to choose? Blame or help? So far, you have chosen blame.

[Thinkingabout]

56. I want to bring something else to your attention. I work in a voting precinct, have worked several

years in the same precinct, in the last four years I have noticed a large number of young black women, some with children in tow and some without. I can't ask questions of why am I seeing a larger number of black female voters showing up but I did relate this to a friend and ask her why did she think this was happening. Her answer was "They are tired of the crap". We have a black president and he has not been getting the support from Congress to be as successful as he wants to be.

We need to get people out everywhere, get them in the voting booths, this is where we can have strength. We can do this, one by one, if not then those who needs help so badly will continue to be left behind, forgotten, no one cares and they their lives continue to deteriorate. Get the words can't, try out of our vocabulary and replace them with can, will and fight to make our lives better.

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. It goes well beyond voting

these folks are currently represented by an African American woman, who ran as a dem. (Like many before her). Yeah, she is trying... might get a few side walks patched, and so far is trying to get money for redevelopment. In theory the offices are non partisan, but that is just theory.

She is also trying to attract businesses, with little luck, like many before her. And from residents, when they contact her office, rare as it may be, forgetaboutit. The office is not that responsive. It never has, wait, it was ONCE. In 2002, that representative, who died in Office and was from Mt. Hope, was the first time anybody paid any attention to the neighborhoods, and truly the last time. I mean serious attention.

That was Charles Lewis, who also got embroiled in charges with two other council members. He literally died in office. I mean that. At his desk.

The area is FINALLY getting a new fire station, after almost 20 years, and it's been needed for 30.

It was known (and still is) as an active gang zone. And in the recent past the DA is trying a fast one and is trying to clean up the streets. (OK Bonnie Dumanis is Republican and has been in office for a LLLOOONGGG TIME.), but these days she is trying to criminalize youth by not just Cal Gangs, and using the police for diversion programs and the gang unit stops people for being young and wearing green, incidentally the colors of the HS and one of the local gangs, but is also trying to get people for guilt by association.


I was told by one of the people who's son was caught in that mess (young man had not a one thing to do with the murders, but 33 men were facing life in prison), that when she contacted the Council Member's office, she was told to pound sand.


And that story is extremely common. Vote them out... well the council member has pissed labor, that busted their tails to get her into office, so that might cost her that seat. But it will not be because of the residents of those communities that have like the lowest turn out rate in the city. And what I have been able to gather, from listening to interviews in both Ferguson (where GOTV worked since they were poorly represented, and god help them if this happens there too), and Baltimore, is that some of the neighborhoods are having the same exact issues with representation in local government


Hell, we are media, with media cards issued by that police department, and we have to justify our presence to the cops. It is not obvious but two white folks in those areas, we stand like sore thumbs. They kind of do a gentle challenge, after all we are white.

As I said, this is not about your precinct work, or justifying why people do not vote. If anybody is going to fix the problem, especially for the poor in this country, elections have to be relevant. Tell me after what Haele told you and what I just wrote if you think they are relevant for them? If I wanted to go further beyond the United States, this is not just limited to the US. There is a crisis of democracy. Yes, I would prefer it if they voted. But I am not going to blame them at all for believing this is not working, becuase for them it has not worked for decades.

[Thinkingabout]

64. How much hope the GOP Congress is ever going to address any of these issues?

None. We have the same attitude in our state houses.

I was talking about my mother who worked very hard, she grew up during the Great Depression. There wasn't any migrant workers, the kids was the workers who gathered the crops. There wasn't any social nets to catch the poorest. There wasn't any food stamp programs or many other programs we accept as the normal. Yes, I have compassion for those depressed and hopeless, but not voting will never change anything. Becoming active is a start.

It can start with one and become two. We need jobs but the GOP doesn't give a damn, never have and never will.

[nadinbrzezinski]

69. See you are thinking about this from the Party POV

moreover, these issues have very little to do with the United States Congress, or for that matter, though they could get some funds form the State Assembly, which is under Democratic control. That is the absolutely first problem you are having. What is happening in many of the poor neighborhoods around the country has very little to do with the Federal government. Or when it does, it is so indirect the face and footprint is not present for local residents. They do not blame the Congress for any of this crap. They blame the CITY COUNCIL. This is a city council that has not been responsive to them for decades, whether they vote or not.

And until people understand why people do not vote, and it has ditkus to do with the US Congress, or the Federal Government, we are going to continue to go around in circles. What I described to you though has all to do with LOCAL GOVERNMENT. It is the LOCAL GOVERNMENT that does not give a damn and it is independent of party.

This is where a lot of the they are the same is coming from as well. Section 8 Housing, a federal program, administered by HUD, does not apply since people own their little WW II era bungalows. School Lunch program, the face of it is NOT the feds, but local officials at the School district. And the bad roads, they will not be fixed by the Feds either. They are fixed by the locals. The tax base is low, so these neighborhoods are far from a priority to get them fixed.

To use a very technical term, from city staff, the city has a deficit of 1.3 billion dollars for infrastructure repair to fix "the stuff" we own, but we are talking of trying to keep an NFL team that none of the residents in that area of town can afford to go watch, but their sidewalks are indeed falling apart. This has none to do with the GOP control of the US Congress, none whatsoever.

Jobs, at the level of where the rubber meets the road, are not created by Congress, sorry to burst that bubble. These are very local issues, and have to be administered, when federal funds are even involved, rarely, by the local officials. Your congressman does not sit down and decide what neighborhood to invest funds. For that matter neither does your state assembly member. This is done at the city level, by city staff.

To use your user name, think about it, because until you do, this disconnect will continue.

Yeah I would prefer they voted, even if they voted as I do. I am am avowed cynic. I do not vote expecting Congress to magically do things for me, or my city council. I vote to remain in practice, because at this point it is all it is. We are living though a very serious crisis of democracy. Many of these neighborhoods are, and have been, the canary in the mine for decades.

[Thinkingabout]

73. What group lowered the SNAP program? Which group are able to increase minimun wages?

Yes, Congress can change situations for American citizens. FDR did and it can happen again. Get a jobs bill going in which Obama has been asking.

[nadinbrzezinski]

74. And this is not relevant where the rubber meets the road

these folks are not blaming DC. They blame the county, that makes it almost impossible to qualify for CAL Fresh. You are not even trying to understand why the blame Washington game is not going to work in the inner city. They do not talk to congressmen (though I do), they at times manage to talk to their city council member. The face of the government as far as SNAP is concerned, is not Congressman Scott Peters, it is their case worker.

When they have a problem with the case worker, they do not write their rep in the Assembly (it is administered by the state anyway), they do not complaint to their city council since they do not listen and will rarely tell them to call their assembly member.

I am sorry this is so difficult, but in the real world, where the poor struggle, DC might as well be on Jupiter, and Sacramento might as well be on Mars, and to make the full allusion, due to access issues, City hall might as well physically be in DC.

I am sorry this is so hard for you to apparently understand, but until you do... and you actually make elections relevant to folks, and give them an actual reason to vote, like half of the country, they will continue not to.

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. Hi neighbor, we both need to get together one of these days

and I do not mean the virtual DU thing.

And yup to all you said.

I need to get back to the community and talk more, or rather listen far more.

[Fumesucker]

7. It's a class thing

The way Americans tend to think of it is if you are smart you are wealthy, if you are poor you must be stupid, it's baked into our culture at a level far below most conscious thought.

What smart person (wealthy) is going to listen to the opinion of a stupid person (poor)?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. BINGO, that is certainly part of it

and then you add race to it...

[Fumesucker]

16. I put up a couple of posts talking about my own experiences just volunteering in the schools..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026532730#post61

The observation I made over and over was that there were the "doers" and the "talkers", one group would be doing the actual physical work, be it setting up before or cleaning up after the gathering and putting the tables and chairs away or chaperoning the kids or any number of other physical chores that needed doing. The other group would be standing around talking to each other and schmoozing the higher ups in the various organizations, PTA, Band Parents, Football Boosters, Soccer Boosters and so on. When it came down to setting the agenda it was invariably the talkers who had the most influence because they were the ones who had the ears of the powers that be, we doers were too busy getting the needed physical work done to have much influence with the upper levels of the heirarchy.

I see almost all politicians as being the "talkers" rather than the "doers", the way you get your voice heard is by schmoozing and chatting up TPTB, not by doing the thankless and often difficult but very necessary physical tasks that are required in any organization of any size.

And...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026532730#post84

Americans like to think they are egalitarian when they are almost anything but that

In the Soccer Boosters (a smaller organization) for instance we had the local District Attorney, a bank president, a surgeon and a pediatrician, we also had a guy who owned (one) garbage truck, a plumber, a couple of carpenters, a warehouse order picker, a tanning salon manager and several retail salespeople. This was a couple of decades ago and those are just the ones I can remember.

Now I can talk to anyone from a garbageman to a nuclear physicist on something close to their level because I'm basically a blue collar worker whose lifelong hobby happens to have been reading everything from Dickens, Twain, Marx and Shelley to Scientific American, Smithsonian and National Geographic but if you think the average garbageman can talk to a District Attorney on his level then perhaps you are deluding yourself a little.

Contempt for manual labor practically oozes out of DU and it's less prevalent here than in much of the rest of American society, as a society we worship power and money. A remark was made to me just a day or so ago here about how we shouldn't listen to the concerns of the Domino's Pizza worker because they don't know anything.

The DA, the physicians and the bank president were talkers, do you really think they were going to assign an equal weight to the opinions of the garbage truck owner or the tanning salon manager as to those of their own class?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Good reads, thanks

[tblue37]

10. +1 million! KnR. nt

[libdem4life]

12. Call me Not Clueless. In LA County I worked with many Hispanics in the 70s...LA County Sheriff was

just as bad, not as lethal, as Authority today. But the oppressed MUST understand the process. Just electing Black folk to local Power does not necessarily improve the lives of the oppressed...witness Baltimore. These officials, too, to join the "in" group must be vetted and included under the Wing of and Color of Power.

I really believe that Baltimore is the opportunity for a Social Movement Cycle...oppression/release/action...The murder still lies with the Police Department, hard as they try to blame the victims. It's hard to fire police...unions and Rights of Duty make it almost impossible. It's going to end up with the Feds, like it or not, not the locals.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. What I usually tell folks when they ask for my opinion

as a reporter you mostly listen... is... vote, and then stay involved. In other words, your job is far from done when ou cast a ballot.

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. Paul Weyrich worked very hard to create such deep voter apathy, they are not about to let that go.

Paul Weyrich is the creator of ALEC, who is promoting the state and local voter suppression laws.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Oh so ALEC is the one who is telling local city hall

not to take on the needs of Mt. Hope? Who knew?

See that is a well worn and tired talking point, While ALEC is doing a lot of shit, they really do not have that much to do with my local downtown mafia, and why my local minority and poor communities are not listened to, or why a certain area of Baltimore has dismal employment statistics.

For the record, if you are anywhere in California you should become more familiar with the Lincoln Club.

[Dont call me Shirley]

25. Sadly, they have a lot of influence in my local community, a reason why voter turnout is lower.

And generally the first to not vote are the poor and working poor. These are who the ALEC Voter ID laws are aimed at suppressing.

With the rise of the corpracrats, the poor and working poor are losing almost all political ground, their real issues are not being addressed at all and their benefits and opportunities are being stripped away. They have become a political playtoy at election time as issue based vote generators, then their issues vanish into thin air after the election.

Voter apathy is a powerful force in suppressing the votes of the minority and poor communities, which the powerful really do not want voting.

The depression and anxiety caused by poverty and overwork are a huge hurdle to voting. Making voting less available, once again by ALEC, makes the hurdle even higher.

Voter apathy and suppression certainly existed before and without ALEC, but ALEC has put that on steroids.

Not in CA, but I will check out Lincoln Club. On edit: Lincoln Club would certainly be BFFs with ALEC, bestest buds.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. I know but people gave up voting a while ago

before ALEC. Read the Atlantic piece I linked to

People really need to make voting relevant, and right now, it is not. It is not if you are a poor, working class, just making it, person.

Choice quote from that article

It didn't take her long to realize that the politicians knew very little about how she and her neighbors lived, about the level of opportunity they did and did not enjoy.

These are the real structural reasons. ALEC is aiming the few who still bother to vote.

[Dont call me Shirley]

32. Democrats had been working on expanding voter registration, hours and places; making it

easier for poor, working poor and minority communities to vote. Then along came bush, gop legislative dominance and 9-11.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. I will be blunt

but I am paraphrasing many of the people who are poor and all that.

"It does not matter, they don't care."

How are you going to deal with that? Expanding hours does not matter if you do not believe it makes a difference. And for many of the working poor it does not.

[Dont call me Shirley]

37. That's what I said, voter apathy. The powerful fear the poor actually caring about the very policy

which makes the poor's daily life. That's why the rich create voter apathy. There are many more poor, working poor and minorities than all of the rich put together, if the poor begin to unite they would make a far larger louder voice than all those fake-people dollars.

The poor, working poor and minority communities MUST start caring! Somehow they must start caring, some Horton-Hears-A-Who how.

I still have hope though.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. How are you going to make elections relevant

when their own city council members really do not give a hoot about their lives? How are you going to make them relevant when their own members of the assembly do not give a hoot?

Some of these pols do, but it is time that people who like to blame the victim realize this. It is not because people are lazy. It is not because they do not care, it is not because they are uninformed...

[Dont call me Shirley]

41. The people of Ferguson, MO were motivated to vote this time. The GOTV people were there

during the protests, signing up voters, urging community members to become involved.

Acorn, which was given the death sentence by the gop, was helpful in GOTV in poor communities.

I understand the frozeness of depression from poverty and overwork. It know it is not laziness! It is extreme fatigue and overwhelm from overwork. It is a frozen state from chronic anxiety. It is the inability to even think about the future because the present trauma is all that can be dealt with at the moment. It is the physical sickness and addiction which often accompanies the trauma of poverty and overwork.

I really don't know how to motivate people, I can't even motivate my own kids do do their schoolwork. I wish I kew how to convey to each person the miracle that they truly are.

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. And the people of Baltomore have a mostly democratic city council

and a mayor.

My city council is mostly democratic, and what I hear from folks in the streets is... They only care about money.



A lot of this is really systemic and who controls what and power elites and goes beyond party labels. Some is different approaches. Yes, republicans will do a lot less for the poor than democrats, but this is also about how the old coalitions are breaking, or broken.

We will see if the new city council in Ferguson delivers, and this is not just about GOTV, which is the part that is extremely hard to convey to partisans. It goes well beyond and into day to day operations. People can and are coopted regularly, and the people who notice this the fastest...

I will give you a very concrete example. My School board is mostly under democratic control. They all speak about better schools and accountability. Fact remains, La Jolla High is at (iirc) 80 percent on track for 2016 graduation. Lincoln High, an urban core school in the same district, with a majority minority student body is at 29 percent.

I intend to ask some serious questions from the district, but this is what the folks who are poor see. Their neighborhood school, to put it bluntly, sucks. But they were promised the sun and the moon and are promised this every election. It feels like Lucy and a certain famous football.

[Dont call me Shirley]

48. 29%! The school board and district admin needs to be held over a scorching fire for that.

Its been this way for a long time, the systemic discrimination against the poor, working poor and minorities in all areas of life. Payday Loansharking, Court-for-fee Program, Less money for schools, Poor public transportation systems, Employee wage theft, Food and Medicine deserts, all these systemic problems that someone else is making big profits from, taking from the community and not reinvesting back into the community. A theft really, a chronic theft of wealth, which keeps real people in a state of chronic-traumatic-shock.

When the social system is built like a pyramid the bottom blocks hold all the weight. Hence we really need to upheave the pyramid and create a horizontal societal structure.

I believe in fairness for all, so a system where a few get to have alot and the rest share a tiny portion makes no common sense to me. We are all born onto this earth and we all deserve to share equally of the resources of this earth. Sometimes I feel like an alien with this thinking.

I will continue reaching into the depths of my being to find and create solutions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. But that is why people really do not care for this thing called votiing

I wrote this at my paper... an analysis piece,

It expands on these themes. Mostly the crisis we are facing for democratic institutions, It is not just the US, but it is a real crisis.

http://reportingsandiego.com/2015/04/14/a-crisis-of-democracy/

I mostly do not bother with things like this here.

[Dont call me Shirley]

65. Excellent article, nadin.

It's going to take all of us working together to create a new system, independent of the system the oligarchs have put in place for us, and make them and their poison system obsolete.

[jeff47]

54. Held over a fire how? Voting for the Republican instead?

With the way our party currently works, challenging an incumbent is unacceptable. As a result, there is no accountability. If you only deliver your promises to the wealthiest 30%, any primary challenger is "trying to split the party!!" or "trying to make the Republican win!!" or "Ralph Nader!!".

We're going to have to break that. We are going to have to mount primary challenges. And we are going to have to overcome the enormous number of people who demand we maintain the status quo out of fear that we might fail.

[nadinbrzezinski]

63. I can attest that the R that ran this year

was one scary duddette. I had a chance to hear her at a Libertarian party event, and oh my freaking god, I was going, do you even know how to read a budget? And what emergency funds are? She was angry, and I mean incensed, that the schools were getting a fresh coat of WHITE paint. With the heat and the drought, some (most if not all) inner city schools do not have AC. So it was one way for the district to try to help.

The money came from reserves since they painted the schools less than a decade ago. It was part of the heat emergency, especially after they had to go for half days or outright suspend classes, when temps got to 100 plus in classrooms. That led to other issues, like school lunches. Most of these kids qualify for them. They also applied for emergency grants to get some of the money recouped from state funds, but she would have none of that. These schools should just not receive ANY maintenance. Yes, she actually said that.

[Dont call me Shirley]

66. That's why we need proportional representation.

[nadinbrzezinski]

70. That is a good idea

but will require a constitutional amendment.

[Dont call me Shirley]

82. Maybe somehow that can be linked to undoing "Billionaires United"

www.movetoamend.org

[nadinbrzezinski]

84. Am a fan actually

[PoliticAverse]

27. The prime reason people don't vote is that they realize their single vote doesn't matter. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Been told that too

yup

[treestar]

60. Of course it doesn't

why should it? Democracy is about what the majority wants.

It counts in combination with others.

[bravenak]

31. Thank you.

Great op. Awesome.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Just two years of mostly doing a lot of listening

[davidn3600]

35. It's a rigged game

That's the problem. We've got WAY too many millionaires in Congress....WAY too many elitists. So any bill you have that helps the poor but hurts the rich has zero chance of passing. Because that would mean all these millionaires would have to vote against their own personal best interests. They would have to vote against the best interests of the people who flood their coffers with money in each election.

Democrats don't get their money to win elections from the people of Baltimore or Ferguson. So you have to wonder how high up the priority list those people really are.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. And these days, this game is not limited to national elections

you really do not want to ask how much it runs to become mayor in my fair city. (Or yours, for that matter).

[sadoldgirl]

40. What I hear mostly in my neighborhood

is:" It is all about money. The politicians get only
involved when there is profit to be made. Since we
don't have any money, we are totally ignored."
We have gangs,where I live, and the police will
show up, and the politicians are talking to us,
after someone got shot and killed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Add the media to your list

but yes, that is precisely what we hear as well. We are media, we show more often than just that. (We do not even pretend to to the if it bleeds it leads), but YES!!!!

[demtenjeep]

55. sweetie, I know this comes from your absolute beliefs but sometimes you send the wrong message. ex

these are all from your thread just here. Once I and many others read the first "I don't expect" or you are clueless" I am done reading

you tend to turn off readers who could be great activist because of these types of comments. I truly am not trying to be mean, just helpful before you experience worse because the worst hasn't happened yet.

Many posters here are quite clueless as to how people live or the few opportunities they have, or why they worry.
recommend you try to have those conversations and leave Mississippi Burning on the DVD player.

I expected nothing less though.

And this has none to do with what I just wrote

It went over your head

I just do not expect you to get it... and there are many reasons why I do not expect you to get it.

I mostly do not bother with things like this here.





you really do not want to ask how much it runs to become mayor in my fair city. (Or yours, for that matter).


these are just but a few examples of statements that make others feel you talk down to them.

No one is saying the information is relevant...we feel your passion but we also feel you looking down your nose at the rest of us.

You might not like this and you might put me on your list, but I want to see you succeed here and implore you to change your posting style. We are not children we get things ---more than you know ...so give us some credit and stop looking down your nose. Please.

[nadinbrzezinski]

57. That is fine sweetie, you really do not need to read it

Last edited Fri May 1, 2015, 02:23 AM - Edit history (1)

by the way I was done reading after the "sweetie."

Oh and by the way sweetie, you are not going on any list, as much as you wish you were.

[demtenjeep]

83. suit yourself. Just trying to throw a little friendly caution your way

do with it what you will.

[Buzz Clik]

81. Meh.

Got no pony in this race, but those were pretty tame insults.

And DU is no place to go to be convinced of anything. The bullshit flows through this discussion board like water through the Grand Canyon.

[treestar]

59. If they don't vote, their experience will be ignored even more nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

61. More than they are getting ignored at the moment

hard to fathom, truly.

Read this from Haele, she knows precisely what communities I am talking about.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026598101#post50

It is truly hard to fathom how much less attention the powers that be in this town can pay to them. In fact, we might have reached rock bottom, (I HOPE).

But I could fill pages here, with those conversations. Why listening to the reporters from Ferguson and now Baltimore, I turned to my husband we both nodded in understanding. Some of the neighborhoods in Baltimore sound like my local neighborhoods.

[alarimer]

67. We make it too difficult to vote in this country.

Felons are disenfranchised automatically (I think it should be easier to restore voting rights).
Election day is not a paid holiday, so many people actually can't find the time. It's also on a Tuesday, which is just stupid.
Not enough voting locations in minority neighborhoods, or not enough machines, which make the lines way too long. This is deliberated disenfranchisement by people who want to discourage some people from voting (especially those who are traditionally democratic voters).

[nadinbrzezinski]

71. This is part of it, but far from all of it

and after two years of talking to the people in these neighborhoods, this is actually a minor part. In California getting people back the franchise is not that heard, except for a very few and high level crimes, (Murder 1 comes to mind). Corrections informing people of this is another story.

In San Diego there are actually no issues with the number of locations to go vote. Read the exchanges I had above with thinkaboutit, I am not to retype all of it. It is far more complex than we make it hard to vote. And I agree, there are certain reforms that would help ease access, but you first need to make voting relevant to people. Right now, it is not.

[99Forever]

68. One size does NOT fit all.

People do or do not, do things for an infinite number of reasons.

However:

People do not vote PRIMARILY, because the system has proven to them that it really doesn't make a significant difference if they do. And that, falls directly at the feet of the lying bastards they have voted for before, that turned out to be just that, lying bastards. THAT is the fault of the political parties and their bosses that let them or even encourage them to be so duplicitous.

Lazy? Fuck that. What a entirely false and stupid thing to say.

[nadinbrzezinski]

72. But we read this often

how these people are lazy and not well informed, and against their best interests.

I get it, trust me, I get it. Hell I vote just to keep in practice because I do not expect to be heard.

[brooklynite]

75. Your explanation fails for this reason...

US voting levels have been comparatively low for Decades: in good economies and bad ones. In the days when households had a single bread-winner and days when single parents hold multiple jobs. It may explain -part- of the problem, but the issue of low voter turnout is a broader one than struggling working class voters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

76. I am not telling you why middle class kids do not vote

I am telling you why inner city folks are not voting. Hell, if you want to really be specific about it I am telling you why the people in the urban core of San Diego, who are really, really poor and ignored by city hall regularly do not vote. It is really not relevant to their lives, and the message has been clear for decades, that they do not matter.

I will invite you once again, to go down to your urban core and find out if this is the same. From reporting in places like the Atlantic, I tend to think it will be. But shoot, I might one of these days try to get the trust in South East LA and find out...

[brooklynite]

77. Your OP is titled "Why PEOPLE at times do not vote"

not "Working Class" people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

78. Yeah, and it is what it is

Poor folks are people last time I checked. Perhaps they are not for you, but to me they are. So I used the word people. Mostly it is a plural of person, and I believe we have more than one poor person in the country.

On edit, I realize that these discussions really make people on this site really nervous. But poverty and race issues are issues that either the democratic party tackles (with labor by the way) or the centrist in the democratic party are in for a nice little surprise sooner or later...

[brooklynite]

79. Then the proper phrase would be "Some People"

I think most people read "People" as "All People"

[nadinbrzezinski]

80. I think this is not about editorial choices

quite personally.