Half of Americans Don't Vote. What Are They Thinking?

[Ohiogal]

6. Wow, this is a great analysis.

“These are people who are generally below the poverty line, with a lot of job turnover and family disruption, whose lives are busy living paycheck to paycheck,” he says. “You don’t really have a lot of time to watch the news or to vote, and the paperwork necessary to vote is annoying.”

“It’s justified cynicism,” he says, an entirely rational distrust of participating. “When they have engaged with the system, it kind of screwed them over. You go to the DMV to get your driver’s license and you find out you have an old speeding ticket you can’t pay. You get hurt and go to the hospital and you get a really big bill. You vote and your name will be in a file somewhere and you’re called up for jury duty. Every interaction brings hardship.”

*****

I have long felt that, life for the low or middle income person in America, is increasingly complicated,stressful, and unaffordable. No wonder so many of this demographic is alienated from “ the system”.