Young People Must Vote

One of the saddest trends in today’s political world is the growing number of voting-age young people who believe that democracy is failing them.

They are wrong.  Democracy is not failing them.  They are failing democracy!

Democracy depends on people paying attention to what is going on in the world and voting.  That’s what a government of the people, by the people and for the people is all about.  When we do not pay attention and vote, the nonvoters decide elections, and they invariably elect bad people, causing democracy to die – as it is doing now.  It is that simple.

And yet,  America’s young voters, defined as being those under 30,  have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world.

Americans as a whole historically take voting for granted and vote in far lower numbers than do those of other developed nations, but our young voters vote in even lower numbers than their elders.  If they would vote, even in the shamefully low numbers that their elders do, they would wield enormous influence.  They make up more than one-third of eligible voters, and research shows that if they would vote, elected officials would prioritize issues that are important to them.

But they don ‘t vote.   Why?

New York Times reporters interviewed young people across the nation earlier this month to learn the answer to that question, and they heard them describing the political system as “scary,” “disheartening,” “not in a good place” and “pretty depressing.”

The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School also investigated the problem last month and found that young people’s faith in government’s “ability to solve big problems” was crumbling, and they felt “overall despair” with the country’s political system.

The result of all this is that, according to the Harvard study, young people are less inclined to vote this year than they were at this point in 2020, and then only 57 percent of them said they were “definitely” going to vote.  Last month, that number had shrunk to 49 percent.

Another reason that our voting-age youth see no reason to vote is that they feel the two parties are giving them an abysmal choice of presidential candidates. They feel a choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is a choice between two evils, and they see no reason why voting for any kind of evil would make a difference.

They are unhappy with President Biden’s stewardship of key issues, especially his support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.  But they also think he’s too old, they don’t like his handling of the economy, and his so-so record on climate change and gun violence.  They want him to better address abortion rights, forgive  more student loan debt and support police reforms.

But they don’t trust Donald Trump on the key issues either, especially his support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which would be more severe than Biden’s support.  They also despise his support for overturning Roe vs. Wade by appointing three far-right justices to the Supreme Court, and for sticking with his anti-abortion stand.  Just a few days ago, at a Fox News town hall, he said, “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe vs. Wade terminated, and I did it.  And I’m proud to have done it.”  They also don’t like Trump’s “divisiveness” and, in a few cases, they mentioned his “authoritarian leanings.”

In that, they are in full agreement with the whopping majority of their elders.  Very few people of any age like our choice.  But like it or not, unless something drastic and unexpected  happens, one of them will be elected president in November and we all will live with it for at least the next four years.  So what to do?

We could sing the oh-woe-is-me song and not vote, which would be a vote for Trump, or we could vote for a hopeless third-party candidate to show disgust with the choices, which also would be a vote for Trump.

None of those is a good choice, so may I offer another?  Vote, but don’t vote for Trump or Biden or a third-party candidate.  Instead vote for a dictatorship or a democratic republic.

If you prefer a dictatorship, stick with Trump.  He has promised to become a dictator on Day One; “suspend” the Constitution; weaponize the Justice Department to go after his political opponents, including the Biden family, district attorneys across the nation, journalists, and the “deep state”; fire thousands of civil service employees and replace them with people who will swear allegiance to him, not the Constitution; stack his cabinet and government agencies across the board with Trump loyalists who will understand they are free to break the law because they will be pardoned; incarcerate and expel millions of immigrants and children of immigrants, though economists agree that doing so would wreck the economy; ban Muslims from entering the United States; silence LGBTQ+ Americans; end abortion across the country; send the nation’s armed forces into Democratic cities to “enforce order”; enact Christian nationalism; take control over regulatory agencies like the Federal Communications Commission; ban hormonal or surgical treatment for transgender minors; build a fence (he calls it a wall) on the southern border even though it would mean usurping private lands and preventing wildlife from reaching their only source of water; get rid of the Affordable Care Act (which has 20.5 million American members); withdraw from the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accords and probably NATO; raise taxes on the poor and middle class and reduce them for the very rich; end birthright citizenship, even though the Constitution guarantees it; dole out  pardons to convicted felons who would work for him (he’s already done that); and fully back Israel in its war on Hamas.

If you decide you don’t like Trump/dictatorship, your only other choice is Biden/democracy.  Voting-age youth have spoken long and  loud about their hatred for Biden, and although they may be right he’s done some good stuff too.

In the first two years of his administration, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, they passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to help restart the country’s economy after the Covid-induced crash; the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) to repair roads, bridges and waterlines, extend broadband, and more; the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to promote scientific research and manufacturing of semiconductors; and the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to lower prescription prices, promote domestic renewable energy production, and invest in measures to combat climate change.

Since Republicans took control of the House in the midterm election, they have kowtowed to Trump’s will and thus all they have managed to accomplish is kick their leader out of office and rename a few post offices.

So, bottom line: Our next president will be Joe Biden or Donald Trump.  Period.  There is and will be no other possibility unless something very strange happens in the next few months.  And since we must vote for one of  them (or again, vote for Trump by either not voting or voting for a third-party candidate), here are the reasons to vote for either:

• Trump:  Either you want a dictatorship from which democracy may never recover, or you aren’t paying attention to what is happening in the world and don’t know what you’re doing, or you are just plain loony.
• Biden:  You want to preserve whatever is left of our tattered democracy so we can begin to make it work again.

My choice is Biden/democracy, but it will only happen if the nonvoters, and especially the young nonvoters, will get out of the grandstands and into the game.  Make a difference.  Either run for office or support someone you believe in. Get behind a presidential candidate for the 2028 election. Make it easy as possible to vote.  Get rid of the Electoral College.  Get rid of gerrymandering. Get rid of everything that stands between us and the world our Founders envisioned.  Use whatever talents you have to get it done.

This may be our final chance to make democracy work again. And it is largely up to our youth, to whom the future belongs, to make it work.

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