The second shows that this trend of an older populace will continue for our lifetimes:
A major question is what percent of each cohort will vote in future elections? And how will the priorities and biases of age cohorts be different (or not) in future elections?
Addendum: From The Dish, a graph showing that voter turnout in this most recent midterm election was the lowest in thirty years.
Those who didn't vote this week are invited not to comment on this post.
I'm going to comment.
ReplyDeleteI'm not that surprised. I feel like a lot of us have given up that we can even make a difference. I personally have never been very informed. It frustrates me to no end when I do learn about what is happening in our States. I feel powerless even if I were to vote.
Yes I know that the only way to feel like I can do something is to be more informed and to use my vote.
I am older now and feel like I can understand better then before. In in the coming years I'm sure that I can make a more informed decision and know what I am going into and try to make my voice heard.
I'm happy that I didn't vote in the past. I don't think I would have made a good decision.
Why wouldn't you want us non-voters to comment anyways?
He is being sarcastic because it is said you can't complain if you don't try to make a difference. It is as if something were happening in your neighborhood, say a mean parent yelling at the children on the playground, and all the parents wanted to fight back but they were one person short of being able to protect the children. If you would't help and your child got yelled at, who would want to hear you complain when you did't care about their children?
DeleteI don't believe you are uninformed. Why else would you be on this blog? It is my opinion that it is your civic duty to be heard at the ballot box. I'm not mad you didn't vote, I'm mad our society produces too many self-admitted uninformed people. It's a disgrace to the non-free world. Yes, we are also corrupt, but it still matters. At least I know I am not part of the problem. I volunteer and vote.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Why does this graph from the Dish show only midterms? I'm curious to see the turnout in the in presidential years too.
ReplyDeleteI voted. It was necessary to boot PA's incumbent Governor, a man who tried desperately to sell the lottery, who cut 1 billion dollars from education, and made our great state the only one who did not charge an extraction tax on fracking wells. What a legacy.
ReplyDeleteCould we go back to the old days when it was the people who chose the person to speak on their behalf whether he wanted it or not?
ReplyDeleteAnd he had to! Or else!
I remember a 1960s SiFi article where a computer would decide, based on qualifications etc, who would be in charge and would do the admin.
Pish poor wages, but, if they did it right, they got off early with a great pension.
Was it Asimov?
I didn't vote because I don't actually live in a democracy. Please reference below.
ReplyDeletehttp://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2014/11/america-functions-as-oligarchy-not-as.html
Thank you! I didn't vote for precisely the same reason. I'm 65 and have been voting a straight Democratic ticket since I was 21, until this year, when I finally woke up.
DeleteOh, and let's not forget: Precious little bloggers who did vote in the belief that this has any meaning at all in the contemporary USA, and are ADDITIONALLY so smug in this belief that they can say shit like "people who didn't vote are invited not to comment", are hereby invited to keep on wanking in public. It's an amusing spectacle.
So just because both parties are bought an sold by special interests mean there is no difference? Bull. In my state, the Republican sweep means more people are going to be kicked off welfare than were the last 4 years under my governor. In other states, fewer poor women are going to have access to abortions, Because Obama was elected, we have healthcare reform and more gay rights (2 Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices would have stopped that.) Are illegal Hispanics with children born here ever going to get a shot at citizenship now? Pick a side, you can be for or against liberal causes, but don't think for a minute there is no difference.
DeleteI was thinking too that the slant of this blog leads toward not voting. Voting day for me is a bitter day of running over all the ways it's not a good or working system, that voting will do nothing to help.
DeleteVoted weeks ago by mail. Didn't make a dent on the large scale, but locally my candidates won.
ReplyDeleteReally, voting by mail is so easy, and I can ignore the last stretch of ads.
I voted. I always vote. I only have one vote, but I use it. If everyone who would have voted as I did had actually voted, we would have had a very different result.
ReplyDeleteI did not vote in this midterm election, and I do feel a twinge of guilt about it. Would work have allowed me time off to go? Not a chance. Are there other means by which I could have potentially voted? Most likely. But I still believe that election day should be a federal holiday. It would be more practical and meaningful than some other federal holidays. If it doesn't raise the voter turnout, then we can get rid of it.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't vote because it isn't a holiday. You are what is wrong with America. Sorry, but that is the simple truth. I am not trying to offend, it just has to be said.
DeleteI apologize if my words were misleading. I did not vote, because it was physically impossible for me to be at the polls during their hours of operationdue to my job. I do not care if election day is a holiday or not; I only wish that voting was easier for the working populace.
DeleteI don't understand why they vote on a normal workday in the US? In Germany votings always take place on sundays.
Delete"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
ReplyDeleteYeah, don't get me started on the idiots who didn't vote and the possibly catastrophic consequences, especially in the U.S. Senate.
ReplyDeleteLurker111
In my case, I voted but someone with a known criminal and violent record was elected anyway. This means I don't have to wonder if it could have been my vote that would have made the difference. Small comfort, but it is real.
ReplyDeleteHere in Brazil, the vote is obligatory for the executive and representative offices in all three branches. The right-wing is discontent with it. They are in a lose since the Labour Party (PT) started wining in 2002. I think we should be able to vote for the judiciary too.
ReplyDeleteAbout the voter turnout thing: I think this video may be relevant http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/3/jim_crow_returns_interstate_crosscheck_program