noun
lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.
"widespread apathy among students"
synonyms: indifference, lack of interest, lack of enthusiasm, lack of concern, unconcern, uninterestedness, unresponsiveness, impassivity, dispassion, lethargy, languor, ennui; rareacedia
"widespread apathy among the voters"
Disillusionment can lead you to a dangerous place. It can cause you to lose faith, it can make you look at the ground instead of looking forward, and it can bring you to the threshold of apathy. Love and hate are emotions, causing feelings of fury and euphoria. The silver lining though is at least you are feeling something. Apathy means you feel nothing, you don't care.
In Politics as in life, apathy can be expressed in a myriad of reasons. Most reasons sadly are legitimate, voicing disillusionment in everything and everyone. During this last election season I don't believe I have seen more apathy from people. Ever. When 46% of the electorate don't even bother to vote, something is seriously wrong and broken. We are going to discuss several of the reasons given that many used to describe why they feel disconnected, discarded, and yes apathetic.
I.
"My Vote Doesn't Matter"
I think that I heard this the most and if there was a poll given for the state of apathy, I would be willing to bet that this would top the leader board. A perfect statement to convey the belief of a total systemic breakdown. It encapsulates a mega philosophic stance in such a small sentence. Think about it, "my vote doesn't matter" means that this whole concept of democracy is fundamentally on the fritz. It means I no longer have a voice, that what I think and feel no longer matters. It means that I do not have a part to play in the local, statewide, and national conversation and debate.
When we feel that we don't have a voice, we stop talking and we stop advancing ideas that could help change the world. If I feel that my vote doesn't matter then any ole' demagogue and petty tyrant can run roughshod over our most sacred beliefs, laws, and institutions. If enough of us think that our vote doesn't matter then those demagogues and tyrants can gain office and control. But hey, that can't happen here in America Right?.......
As I stated before, 46% of registered voters didn't vote in the last election. In such a tight race, it literally means that chances are that the election ended in a way that you didn't necessarily expect or want. This show is being broadcast out of Portland, Oregon and here on the left coast we overwhelmingly voted blue. "My vote doesn't matter" can take on different contexts. It can mean systemic nullification but it can also mean "Clinton is going to win in Oregon or this blue state anyways, so why bother... It wouldn't have changed the outcome".
I would like to give you some food for thought and give you a couple things to think about. First, if you live in a state where it wouldn't have made a difference in the Electoral College you still could have added to that epic discrepancy in the popular vote. Instead of just winning the popular vote by almost three million, could you imagine a final tally of four, four and a half, five million votes. There certainly would not be any talk of a mandate and by the shear audacity of the numbers there would have been a overwhelming case for change to the Electoral College. If you live in one of the several battleground or competitive states then you have to contend with the fact that you could have effectively changed the result. In the so called "rust belt" states the race was so incredibly insanely close that what I contend rings true. I don't mean to point fingers or demean non voters in any way but inaction like action has consequences.
II.
"I Don't like The Candidates Or Politicians, They're Sleazy"
This view takes on a certain poignancy as it pertains to this last campaign season. In no other election for President has both candidates held such a high unfavorable rating. It was brutal and it was ugly. While one was exposed as being a narcissistic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, and sexual deviant who mocked the disabled and lied at least 74% of the time he opened his pie hole; the other candidate was perceived as corrupt, an insider, cold and unlikable.
With this amount of negativity swirling it's easy to see the veracity of the charge. With a favorable rating of Congress in single digits I can completely understand and sympathize. What we need to do however is learn to discern between legitimate beef and smear tactics, propaganda, and disinformation. We saw a Tsunami of fake news and even cyber espionage designed to help influence an election and it was scarily effective in muddying the waters ans creating such a toxic divisive state that is caused many people to throw up their lunch and hands and simply walk away and turn off.
We need to do our due diligence when it comes to vetting our candidates and I mean our own personal vetting. Too many of us showed a propensity to get sucked in by these fake news stories that were maliciously and surgically inserted into social media with the design to smear and demean the whole process to the point of mass negativity and mass apathy. Due diligence also means that we have to delve deeper into who the candidates are and what they stand for and against. No candidate or politician is perfect, we all know that. Increasingly we feel that our parties and representatives are a part of a monolithic Orwellian type machine, cold and bureaucratic with no soul and no heart. We need to step away from the idiom "the lesser of two evils". I am not saying that sometimes that isn't apt, and it depresses the hell out of me when it's warranted.
As weird as this sounds, we need to humanize them. A part of this is we need to connect with them no only personally but geographically as well. We never account for the fact at least that at the local level candidate Joe or Jill actually comes from the neighborhoods that we call home. Mayors and Governors have the same regional flavor as we do and should exemplify the best of our regional character.
III.
"I Don't Like Politics, It's So Negative"
One major tactic that was used during this last campaign season was to lower voter turn out by making the races so dirty and so ugly that people would lose interest and just stay home. I am not kidding. It not only worked, it was insidiously effective and it should worry us. Big time. Such practical application directly undermines democracy and everything we hold dear. When we turn off to the vague notion of "politics" we forget what all that entails, which is basically everything. We forget that is encompasses schools, education, health care, taxes, and every financial based policy or program. Without a voice we no longer have a say about the basic societal building blocks that we depend on in our daily lives.
For 20 million people (actually closer to 30 million) this is terrifyingly real as we have found out this week as the the House and Senate have voted to start the process to repeal The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Not only will this mean that a significant portion of our country will no longer have health insurance coverage, but it also means that you may lose your coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Then, you also need to account for the higher prescription prices for your medicine that will spike due to the price caps that were in place that will no longer be there. This is just a small illustration, and as you know most things are connected to something else. Oh and I almost forgot, the tax money that was used to help fund the ACA will go back to the top 1% a.k.a. the super rich. So there's that.
This polarizing negativity is only going to escalate unless we actively do something about it. I know it's blunt but it's true. Change never happens from the top down, it only happens from the bottom up and that means we have to start at home. I am a Progressive, this is a Progressive show, so this means for me it starts in Clackamas County and my State of Oregon. Wherever you live it means getting involved at the local level, with local issues, and local causes. If we all change the dynamic in our own states, then by proxy we help with the national dialogue and those we send to Washington to speak for us.
Politics will stop being dirty only when we demand that those who wage this war of unconscionably dark rhetoric are shunned and sent back to the fringes from whence they came. It has got to start here and it has got to start now.
IV.
"There Is Too Much Going On In My Life, I'm Too Busy"
Everything comes at you now at the speed of life. It's hard to juggle work, family, friends, and any hobbies or things you are passionate about. The connectivity that technology brings means that we are deluged by life as never before. In the spirit of that, may I make a humble suggestion. I would like to suggest that we all do a better job of prioritizing. Find out what means the most to us and then get our priorities straight.
Locally through our school Boards, PTA's, local city council's, local non profit organizations and charities, we can help bring about new ideas and solutions and will only help all of us lead better, smoother, meaningful lives. President Kennedy's iconic call "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Your Country" still stands just as true today as it did on that cold January morning back in 1960. This altruistic call to service needs to be embraced again in our and the younger generations. When we connect with something bigger than ourselves then we only make ourselves and our communities better. Even though technology has given us faster ways to communication and connect, it's the type of connection that can make all the difference. We all sit and stare at our smartphone and computer screens but hardly ever to look up and talk to the people around us. Never have I felt more connected yet more alone. We no longer know the names of our neighbors or the names of the teachers that our children learn from at school.
I guess it means a change in culture. What I'm about to say is going to peck off a lot of people, but know this; when I say we I am including myself as well. It is as much a self indictment as anything. The reason why the negative, dirty, disgusting, dark, and hateful tactics worked as well as it did is due to the values we hold and how we perceive what we see, hear, and read as it relates to those values and beliefs we hold to up as important. A hard and simple fact is that we embrace and hold up as virtues what was once labeled as vices. When we spend our time watching and processing lurid situations and events, we plaster it up all over the internet and on our flat screens. It turns into fodder on Social Media and turns into entertainment, the 21st century bread and circuses. We have become desensitized, and we have turned into a Reality TV culture.
Case in point, the Access Hollywood bus footage where our now President-Elect talked about sexually assaulting women and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Disqualifying in any other election and from any other candidate, aside from mockery and some outrage it had no lasting effect on the outcome of the election. That alone should bring a profound sense of shame. We have turned our public officials into Reality TV stars, there to entertain us instead of governing and legislating.
Let's have some quick fun. Imagine if you will different Presidents and historical figures using the words of our President-Elect. George Washington stepping off a bus telling Billy Bush that because he's a celebrity he can "grab 'em by the pussy", and sexually assault women without consequence. Or Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg giving his address with words like: "bigly", "Yuuuuge", and "we need to win this Civil War so we can make America great again" while wearing that stupid red MAGA hat. If that is too ancient for you let's try something a little more recent. The great communicator Ronald Reagan himself in West Germany telling the Soviet Union and the world: "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall so we can build it on our southern border and have Mexico pay for it".
If we want to create more time and unclutter our lives a little more then I humbly suggest again we prioritize better and spend less time giving clowns airtime and send them back to the circus.
In Conclusion.
Sometimes it's hard to care, especially when we see what state the world is in and what the near future brings. I know the tea leaves and stars portend some dire times ahead but this is when we need to engage more, help shape local policy, find and use your voice in protest and encouragement.
History teaches us that in moments of tension and crisis, keeping your head down and staying silent leads to authoritarian tyranny and leads lambs to the dinner table in the form of veal cutlets. It's time to shed our apathy and give a damn again.
