[nfbmi-talk] not voting new normal

[joe harcz Comcast]

Not voting is the new normal Those of us who vote can never quite decide whether those who don't deserve our pity or our scorn. Surely there's something

wrong with folks who sit out election after election, something deeply irrational about their reluctance to participate in choosing those who will spend

their money, send their children to war and pass laws in their name. But what is it? Sloth? Apathy? Ignorance? Sometimes we scold the nonvoters like preachers

at a tent revival, challenging them to repent or threatening to expose their dereliction to their friends and neighbors. In calmer moments, we invoke the

language of epidemiologists, wringing our hands over the "plague of apathy" that has "infected" the nation's "body politic," and wondering which measures

policymakers should take to stem the epidemic. A dwindling minority But what if we've got it backward? What if those of us who vote are the ones who are

behaving irrationally, whether we cast our ballots for Democrats, Republicans, or some other party's standard-bearers. And what if those who stay at home

in election after election are making a reasonable choice, like the consumer torn between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts who realizes that she really didn't

want a 'cup' of coffee in the first place? Voting may be virtuous, but it's increasingly abnormal. Nearly six of every 10 registered Michigan voters opted

out of this past week's statewide elections, down slightly from 2010, when the turnout was about 45%. And although it's too early to parse nonvoters by

age, most forecasters think participation by voters younger than 30 fell below 25%. An even larger majority chose not to vote in the even more consequential

August primary, when less than 20% of registered voters decided what would be on the menu when general election voters went to the polls last week. If

not voting is a vice, the virtuous are hopelessly outnumbered. If it's a pathology, we're in the throes of a pandemic that dwarfs Ebola, cancer, heart

disease and handgun violence together. The sounds of silence So let's assume, if only for the sake of argument, that Michigan's nonvoting majority is neither

lazy nor deranged. Let's suppose that their abstention reflects the reasonable conclusion that, given the choice between candidates they disagree with

and candidates who are transparently under-qualified for the position, their best option is to get to their second jobs on time, do another load of laundry,

or watch whatever is on cable. In a study that sparked spirited debate when it was published earlier this year, two political science professors who looked

for connections between popular voting behavior and governmental policy-making concluded that majority-rule democracy is a fiction that survives mainly

in social studies textbooks. "The preferences of economic elites," Princeton's Martin Gilens and Northwestern's Benjamin I. Page concluded, "have far more

independent impact upon policy change than the preferences of average citizens do. OK, so probably only an infinitesimal percentage of nonvoters have ever

heard of Gilens and Page, or reckoned the odds that their own ballot choices could tip the scales on any significant public policy question. But isn't

it likely that their behavior reflects some dim, instinctive recognition of the reality that scholars like Gilens and Page have documented? Do you need

to be an expert on campaign finance to recognize that a tiny percentage of donors now accounts for the vast majority of political spending, or to suspect

that they might be getting something in return? "The world is run by those who show up," the old saying goes. But at what point do the folks who don't

show up become the bigger story? The economy is considered to be in free fall when less than 92% of the work force is employed. At what point does democracy

itself become unsustainable? When voter turnout slumps to 35%? To 20%? To 15%? At the very least, we in the news media ought to stop focusing on which

party is doing better at the box office and acknowledge that an ever-growing percentage of the audience has stopped going to the theater altogether. Contact

Brian Dickerson at 313-222-6584 or bdickerson at freepress.com.