ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TAG: 9612110010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ERNEST DUFF
WHY DON'T Americans vote?
The fact we don't is indisputable. With the exception of the 1992 election, when more than 55 percent of the electorate went to the polls, voting levels in this country have hovered around 50 percent since the late 1960s. Only about 49 percent of eligible voters bothered to vote in the recent presidential election. Bill Clinton was elected with slightly more than 23 percent of the total votes available in that election, or with merely a plurality of a plurality.
Even before the recent decline in voter participation, Americans traditionally voted in much fewer numbers than people in other industrialized countries. In the most recent election in the United Kingdom in 1992, approximately 74 percent of the electorate went to the polls. The German election of 1994 produced a voter turnout of almost 80 percent, and these percentages are typical of voter turnout in these nations over time. Why are we so prone not to vote?
I believe there are three major reasons why Americans don't vote:
* Our society has long been characterized as one in which rights supersede obligations. Therefore, voting is not regarded by many of us as an obligation to our society.
Certainly, the "what's in it for me?" attitude that increasingly seems to permeate our society, coupled with the NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude of many of us concatenates with this basic political culture that emphasizes rights over obligations.
* Americans' propensity to vote has been reduced in recent years by the increasing ideological congruence of our two major political parties.
When voters have real choices, they will go to the polls. This was demonstrated in 1964 when Barry Goldwater's phrase, "A choice, not an echo," produced a turnout of 61.9 percent. Recently, however, George Wallace's phrase, "There's not a dime's worth of difference," tends increasingly to epitomize the lack of real choice Americans are faced with in elections.
Until fairly recently, voters knew if they voted either Democratic or Republican that they were voting for a real difference in government policies. Today, Bill Clinton is the latest in a line of Democrats who have turned their backs on the historic principles of their party in a rush to win elections. The Republicans have, in turn, forgotten they are the party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and instead give us the spectacle of Bob Dole, a good and honest man, rejecting many of the principles that characterized his entire political life in a desperate attempt to become president. Maybe Ross Perot was right when he referred to them as Tweedledum and Tweedledee!
* Americans are increasingly alienated from the entire political system.
This is the most serious reason they don't vote. Fully one-third of nonvoters in the recent election stayed home because they believe their vote doesn't count - and they may be right. Government is increasingly perceived by voters as beholden to special interests and big money, and not to the people it should serve. Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people and for the people" sounds increasingly hollow. Further exacerbating the situation is the increasing tendency for politicians to dodge the important questions in American life in favor of a large serving of pabulum to the American public, via 30-second sound-bites on the tube.
A lot needs to be done if we are to reverse this trend.
For starters, the two political parties must once again stand for something. The Clinton approach may win elections, but it derogates public discourse. The Dole approach, in which the candidate abandons principles and claws to the center in a desperate attempt for votes, is just as bad.
Secondly, we should talk more about politics. Families that talk about politics at the dinner table (if anyone still eats at the family table) produce offspring who themselves are political participants. Educating children to understand politics and talk articulately about politics will lead to adults who vote.
Finally, we need to clean up television. Karl Marx opined that religion was the opiate of the people, but today, television is the opiate of the people.
Sitcoms and talk (read freak) shows are not conducive to thinking about politics, or much else for that matter. Let's boycott the talk shows until they clean up their acts, and then move on to the sterile sitcoms with their canned laughter and increasingly lubricous plots.
Television can be a great teacher in many areas, including politics. Maybe then we Americans will be able to clear our minds and once again participate in a political process that should be at the heart of our society.
Ernest Duff is Charles A. Dana professor of politics at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB