The Senate race that should mean so much seems to mean so little. The Congressional races are yawners for the most part and who knows who’s running for most of the commission and council races? What is going on???
Voter turnout is down for several reasons this cycle. A much earlier voting date is clearly impacting the public’s attention to this year’s races. It’s not a Presidential election year and that always hurts turnout. We’re seeing some of the same folks running for office now that we did years ago. They’re good qualified candidates that can go to work immediately with no learning curve…and still no real buzz about this primary, the runoffs or the big one in November.
When one looks at this election cycle it’s easy to see where we may have missed some of the signs that voters were becoming apathetic. Ralph Reed spoke at the Georgia Center Right Coalition meeting last week and reminded us that not only did a lot of conservative voters stay home in the last Presidential election but even Barack Obama received possibly ten million fewer votes than he did when he took office. What’s up with that? Despite an increase of more than eight million eligible voters over 2008 the overall turnout in 2012 was down 5%. Some 93 million eligible citizens didn’t take the time to vote. The youth vote, the Hispanic vote and yes the Black vote were all down for a Presidential election so shouldn’t we have expected the lousy showing so far this year?
There’s an old saying about Richard Nixon… “He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” Nixon was hated by both parties but the Republicans were stuck with him. Could it be that the partisan divide is so great in our country that we not only don’t like their SOB but we don’t even like our own SOB? Have we as voters decided that the bickering and lack of compromise to move the country forward, even a little bit, is turning us off at a level that may cause a generational decline in turnout? If so shame on us and shame on those in office so entrenched in their belief that they can’t find the smallest piece of common ground to work on! The term “special interest” can now be laid on almost everyone in both parties. The conservatives have the one issue folks, abortion, immigration, fiscal responsibility and national defense, all sacred cows. The left is stuck on providing all things to all people in the name of “fairness” and “equality.” If life has stiffed you in some way the left will happily promise you a “gubment” program to balance the playing field. All of these issues are collectively necessary to deal with but singularly so divisive that we can’t possibly find a candidate that makes everyone happy so both sides retreat to their corners. Meanwhile the country rocks along looking for someone that can bridge the gap and move the country forward and the voters start staying at home.
Turnout is a funny thing. If we decide to “sit this one out” we give a small percentage of the population the power of over two hundred million voices. Now who’s the SOB?
