On American Apathy

Why Bother?
Examining the Apathy of the American voters


Pundits and the general public agree that American democracy is the "best" form of government active in the world today, yet, very quickly, and almost apologetically, the same people who make those assertions will admit that the system is "less-than-perfect", and indeed, many would concur that it is not a case of just a few scattered design flaws here and there which mar the perfection of an otherwise smoothly operating machine, but rather it is the very political system itself as well as the people who serve and are served by it which are fundamentally flawed, thus leading us to the question: what's wrong with politics; why aren't more people engaged in the political process?
The answer to that question is startlingly easy at face value, yet its ponderous weight has smothered and drowned any would be opponents from day one. That is: very simply. W-E D-O-N-T C-A-R-E!
Or in other words, the catch phrase of this entire generation of apathetic citizens is, "Why Bother?"

Why bother, indeed?
In order to support this hypothesis, I will just briefly touch on some of the historical precedents set by the founders of the United States, and their expectations about how the common men and women were supposed to involve themselves in the political process, and again, the answer reveals: "They weren't!"
The educated gentlemen at those conventions in the late 1700's were not so terribly revolutionary as they were reactionary to King George III's unstable and onerous whims and oppressions, apparently the result of mental instability, he enacted policies of heavy taxation and commandeering within the Thirteen Colonies. Many early Americans, if not most, had previously enjoyed the "civilization" the British introduced to the New World, and continued to think of themselves as English, whether or not they had been born at home or overseas.
The enjoyed a reasonably high standard of living, supported to a large degree, on the toil of slaves and indentured servants.
Indeed, paramount in the minds of the Revolutionaries was the concept of their own divine right to property (including slaves) and they spoke of freedom as an ideal by which their proprietary Rights were inviolate by either king or peers.
Hence, upon close examination, the Constitution of the United States along with its Bill of Rights and additional Amendments is less a noble statement of idealistic freedoms than it is a conservative collection of binding laws which may suggest that all men may be equal, but men with property are more equal than others...
Flash-forward a couple of hundred years, and we find that not much has changed.
The inalienable right to private property is one of the building blocks on which American capitalism rests and the acquisition and defense of "material wealth" has been ingrained and haloed within our very lives.
Furthermore, the handful of revolutionary war heroes and early political delegates have grown into a gargantuan behemoth of a staggeringly intricate bureaucracy which now regulates virtually every part of our lives from the government-subsidized grain cereals we eat in the morning to the F.C.C.-regulated content of the dramadies and "reality" TV shows we fall asleep in front of each night. The tremendous mass of offices and branch offices and departments and courthouses and the like effectively squelches any dissent, any raised objections, and so we come to conclude once more: Why bother?
Why waste my precious time filing a complaint with some distant government office in whose view I realize I am nothing more than a number, and perhaps an address?
And that's really all politics is anyway, isn't it? Complaining about and seeking some resolution to my personal problems.
Once again, I reject the lofty rhetoric about building a better society for our posterity, yadda, yadda, ad nauseum.
No, what we really want from politics is for something to change in our own personal self-interests, only considering the neighbors as an afterthought, if at all.
Thus, it is a person of strong moral character and altruistic drive who champions the rights of the unvoiced with no ulterior motive.
Which is not to say that those people don't exist.
They do.
But even they are frustrated by the general apathy frozen within the stony hearts of the typical American.
For example, here on campus at L.A. City College, recently there have been a number of signature-gathering petitions to advance a number of seemingly innocent initiatives. One, to impose an excise tax on cigarettes sold in California to provide both an incentive to quit smoking as well as a slush fund to help pay for the costs of smoking-related health care; the other, to establish a full-time pre-school system for children four years of age in an effort to ease the burden on the hectic life of the working parent.
I spent an afternoon with a girl named Geena last fall as she strove to get people interested in either or both of these issues. She was friendly and knowledgeable, and we talked for a couple of hours not just about the issues themselves, but our mutual frustration with the apathetic passers-by, who, more-often-than-not, when confronted with her clip-board, grunted noncommittally and turned the other way.
Why bother, indeed?
Elsewhere on campus, I have encountered the extremely dedicated supporters of political black-sheep Lyndon LaRouoche, an eccentric economist whose bleak outlook for the future of mankind and propagator of myriad conspiracy theories has made him sort of a cult hero against the Bush Regime. His disciples are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and persistent in a cute, if annoying way. If only their leader didn't sound like such a kook, himself, maybe I'd devote some time to his campaign.
However, one of the realities of American politics, is that it is still a two-party system, despite many indications that partisan politics is the main reason for gridlock, at least in the Federal level, where billions of dollars and countless man-hours are wasted attempting to get past the ideological lines drawn in the sand.
Hence, third parties, while arguably important in the free practice of a more complete democracy, often take votes away from candidates backed by one of the dominant parties, and thereby indirectly and ironically assist the campaign for the other candidate.
Potential voters are often disenfranchised from the entire process by feeling that either their votes are wasted on a 3rd party candidate who may be admirable, but likely will not muster enough support to win or even sway the election versus the feeling that they have to vote for the lesser of two evils, and again, the conclusion, accompanied by a sigh is: Why bother?
I have tried to counter this sentiment in my own personal world view and endeavored to affect change in a number of ways, yet each time, I was left feeling bitter and frustrated and cheated, with that lingering "Why bother dammit?!? " ringing through my head.
Examples include:
A.) Becoming disabled and losing my job due to the disability, and receiving no recourse even from the Federal Department of Justice (which is supposed to enforce the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 along with many other civil liberties I'd assumed were inviolate. But the ADA didn't apply in a "Right-to-Work state like Arizona where employers are given free-reign to hire or fire employees at any time with or without reason or notice.
B.) As a voter in the 2000 presidential election who saw it flagrantly stolen by a lying schemer who wasn't able to win the polar vote and had to resort to dirty tricks to yank to wool over the collective eyes of the nation.
C.) At a peaceful assembly to protest the illegal and unjust war waged by the same lousy guy who stole the presidency I was beaten and held for three hours without reason or charges being made by the police--the same police my tax dollars are supposed to pay to protect me from being mugged or brutalized.

The list goes on.

However, what saddened me the most is that I still persevered in my faith in American democracy up to the point that last year I ran for and won a chair on my neighborhood council, at which point I became so disgusted at the petty in-fighting and catty gossip and generalized bitch-sessions held under the guise of grass-roots, earthy politics, that I resigned my chair, and have since begun to look at the possibility of immigrating to another country after I finish school.
After all, it is a big planet on which we live, and the United States doesn't even rank in the top ten Westernized countries based on modern factors such as health care, education, environmentally friendly industrial policies, limited illicit drug use, few violent crimes, minor rates of sexually transmitted diseases, and less unwanted pregnancies.
Sweden actually tops the list, with Norway and Canada close behind, and the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica, all taking positions above the good old U.S. of A.
In sum, maybe the question of what's wrong with politics and why aren't more people involved is moot, since my answer is to disengage from a sinking ship in the hopes that the political game will be more friendly elsewhere with a better chance of survival for everyone.








Bibliography

Asher, Robert CONCEPTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY: Harpers Collins Publishers, New York, 1996

Auza, Enrique THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE: Copley Custom Publish. Acton, MA 2003

Greenberg, Edward S. & Page, Benjamin I. THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY: Addison Wesley Publishers, Inc. 2003

Davis, Kenneth C. DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY BUT NEVER LEARNED: Avon Books, New York, 1995

Finkelstein, Norman H. THE WAY THINGS NEVER WERE: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE "GOOD OLD DAYS": Simon & Schuster, New York 1999

Sherrill, Robert WHY THEY CALL IT POLITICS: Harcourt College Publishers, Ft, Worth, TX, 2000