{"id":414,"date":"2024-01-21T16:42:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T21:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=414"},"modified":"2024-01-21T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T21:42:08","slug":"young-people-must-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2024\/01\/21\/young-people-must-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Young People Must Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the saddest trends in today\u2019s political world is the growing number of voting-age young people who believe that democracy is failing them.<\/p>\n

They are wrong.\u00a0 Democracy is not<\/em> failing them.<\/em>\u00a0 They <\/em>are failing democracy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Democracy depends on people paying attention to what is going on in the world and voting.\u00a0 That\u2019s what a government of the people, by the people and for the people is all about.\u00a0 When we do not pay attention and vote, the nonvoters decide elections, and they invariably elect bad people, causing democracy to die \u2013 as it is doing now.\u00a0 It is that simple.<\/p>\n

And yet,\u00a0 America\u2019s young voters, defined as being those under 30,\u00a0 have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 If they would vote, even in the shamefully low numbers that their elders do, they would wield enormous influence.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

But they don \u2018t vote.\u00a0\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

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 \u201cscary,\u201d \u201cdisheartening,\u201d \u201cnot in a good place\u201d and \u201cpretty depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School also investigated the problem last month and found that young people\u2019s faith in government\u2019s \u201cability to solve big problems\u201d was crumbling, and they felt \u201coverall despair\u201d with the country\u2019s political system.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdefinitely\u201d going to vote.\u00a0 Last month, that number had shrunk to 49 percent.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They are unhappy with President Biden\u2019s stewardship of key issues, especially his support for Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza.\u00a0 But they also think he\u2019s too old, they don\u2019t like his handling of the economy, and his so-so record on climate change and gun violence.\u00a0 They want him to better address abortion rights, forgive\u00a0 more student loan debt and support police reforms.<\/p>\n

But they don\u2019t trust Donald Trump on the key issues either, especially his support for Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, which would be more severe than Biden\u2019s support.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Just a few days ago, at a Fox News town hall, he said, \u201cFor 54 years they were trying to get Roe vs. Wade terminated, and I did it.\u00a0 And I\u2019m proud to have done it.\u201d\u00a0 They also don\u2019t like Trump\u2019s \u201cdivisiveness\u201d and, in a few cases, they mentioned his \u201cauthoritarian leanings.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that, they are in full agreement with the whopping majority of their elders.\u00a0 Very few people of any age like our choice.\u00a0 But like it or not, unless something drastic and unexpected\u00a0 happens, one of them will be elected president in November and we all will live with it for at least the next four years.\u00a0 So what to do?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

None of those is a good choice, so may I offer another?\u00a0 Vote, but don\u2019t vote for Trump or Biden or a third-party candidate.\u00a0 Instead vote for a dictatorship or a democratic republic.<\/p>\n

If you prefer a dictatorship, stick with Trump.\u00a0 He has promised to become a dictator on Day One; \u201csuspend\u201d the Constitution; weaponize the Justice Department to go after his political opponents, including the Biden family, district attorneys across the nation, journalists, and the \u201cdeep state\u201d; 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\u2019s armed forces into Democratic cities to \u201cenforce order\u201d; 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\u00a0 pardons to convicted felons who would work for him (he\u2019s already done that); and fully back Israel in its war on Hamas.<\/p>\n

If you decide you don\u2019t like Trump\/dictatorship, your only other choice is Biden\/democracy.\u00a0 Voting-age youth have spoken long and\u00a0 loud about their hatred for Biden, and although they may be right he\u2019s done some good stuff too.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Since Republicans took control of the House in the midterm election, they have kowtowed to Trump\u2019s will and thus all they have managed to accomplish is kick their leader out of office and rename a few post offices.<\/p>\n

So, bottom line: Our next president will be Joe Biden or Donald Trump.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 There is and will be no other possibility unless something very strange happens in the next few months.\u00a0 And since we must vote for one of\u00a0 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:<\/p>\n