It's almost passe nowadays to decry the extremely low voter-turnout of young people and to characterize them as a bunch of apathetic, self-centered ne'er-do-wells who are only out for themselves and couldn't care about the rest of the world. However, apparantly right now, the rate of volunteerism for Americans aged 18-30 is the highest its ever been in all the time it's been measured.
For me this raises a bunch of questions. I'm just going to list them.
1) Why is this? 2) Is this perferrable to the alternative (i.e. high voter-turnout/lower volunteerism)? 3) What are the implications for social and political change based on this trend? 4) How do we reattach this enthusiasm to the political world? Do we even want to reattach it? 5) A whole bunch of others.
So, hey, does anyone else have some thoughts on this?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Well, a lot of the people I know don't feel like their vote matters in any way in either state or national elections, but they do care very much about society, and contribute to it through their volunteer efforts. Their failure to vote in local elections, where their vote can have an obvious impact, is probably due to the inertia brought about by their feelings of impotence on a state and national level.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
There is more immediate satisfaction in helping someone than there is in casting a vote.
Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :
Voting implies support of the system.
Posted by Sal (Member # 3758) on :
Apart from the trend though, what are the numbers? Could it be that the volunteers are mostly voters as well, and not at all related to the growing number of non-voters?
Just wondering.
Posted by WheatPuppet (Member # 5142) on :
I think that some people don't vote because they're fairly happy with how they're living and how they're government is doing. I don't like how the government is doing (I havn't for a while, since the late days of Clinton, when I could really decide for myself), so I cast my vote to try and change it. I have a snowball's chance in hell, but I know that I've done my part.
Go third party (as long as you aren't bloody socialists)!
Posted by Feyd Baron (Member # 1407) on :
Danzig summed it up. I'd rather not vote than support any of a wide variety of poor choices. If I'm forced to vote (not going to happen, but if it did) I'd write in a vote of myself or something else. I would not try to pick the lesser of the various 'evils'.
And, just for the sake of posterity. I do volunteer a good bit, and have not voted for any state or federal office in the 5+ years I've been eligible, only local.
Feyd Baron, DoC
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
I think more "young" people are able to see the effects of their volunteerism as well as it being very community based. Politics have really moved away from the small group "grassroots" activism that many volunteers find appealing.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
You mean volunteering actually has a point? Can get something done? There's actual accomplishment?
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
I don't think voting implies support of the system and it shouldn't be viewd that way. At least in a democracy you can use your vote to change the system. If its a truly repressive society like pre-invasion Iraq than you have to vote or risk imprisonment so in that case you definitely are not supporting the system by voting.
[ September 10, 2003, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: newfoundlogic ]
Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :
Change the system? Can I have some of what you are smoking?
Posted by Chade Fallstar (Member # 5581) on :
I'm guessing that most of the people who volunteer also vote. I could be wrong, but that would be my completely uneducated guess. Many people I know who fall into that age bracket don't vote because they simply don't care. I can honestly tell you that many of them couldn't name a single democratic candidate for president in '04, and since that is the case what do you think the likelyhood of them voting is?
Many of them have the attitude that the government is fundamentally corrupt and will do whatever it wants to anyway, so their vote has no value or purpose. They consider all elections to be rigged from the beginning and therefore void.
It's a terrible way to view things, I don't entirely understand it. Those are just a couple reasons I know of why people don't vote.