Getting Involved
As a democracy, we don’t seem to care. Voter participation has hovered between 50 and 60% in presidential elections over the last 120 years. The last time it hit 70% was in 1900. The 2020 number of 66% was the highest it’s been since that year. It feels like we might break the 70% barrier this year if early voting is any indication, but I don’t have any numbers to back it up.
It always surprises me that people don’t care more. I remember being really excited in 1968 when I got to vote for the first time. I puzzled and puzzled over my choices before finally settling on Humphrey. I was in the Navy at the time, and I voted absentee. And I’ve voted in every election since then. On occasion I even worked to stir up interest in an election in support of a candidate.
But the truth is, on a day to day basis, most people don’t want to have much to do with politics. And I’m the same way. I really like it when I don’t have to think about Congress or the president except on special occasions. But that might be changing. Now that we have 24-hour news they have to talk about something, and social media is out their poking at us, too. So, the bratty kid of politics is always tugging at our pants demanding our attention. So, maybe this is the start of something new. We might start wondering who are these people and why are they there?