Voter Apathy, Disillusionment With America

By Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

Voter apathy says, why should I participate in a process of a government whose leaders don’t respect one another, who show no civil decorum, or respect for laws, rules and order, or the elected officials?

The demographic of voter apathy runs the spectrum of the generations, from Boomers to Alpha. They’ve lost confidence, trust, and enthusiasm for America’s leadership; they don’t believe they can serve the interest of the country, or the people, they only serve their power grabbing agendas.

So, many don’t go to the polls and cast their votes; why, they muse. When you don’t exercise the privilege to vote for the candidates of your choice, you vote by default for the candidates harboring extremist self-interest agendas.

As a result, we have state legislatures, and the halls of Congress overran with court jesters engaged in performance politics. They don’t meet differing opinions with a willingness to compromise for the common good, they meet disagreements with insults and personal at tacks.

The House Oversight Committee meeting on Friday resembled a group of freshmen high school students trying to best the other with insults and personal at tacks. The disruption was initiated by the “Queen Court Jester” Marjorie T. Greene (R.Ga).

That is the quality the appealed to those who voted; or the apathy voters elected them by default. These are the seeds that grow apathy. It didn’t start with this one episode.

The antics of the extremist, dysfunctional obstructionist have held the operations of government hostage for more than a decade. It’s done under the guise of love for the country, rescue and restore the nation to its right order. Only they have the best interest of America at heart.

It creates mistrust of our elected official, lack of confidence in the processes of government operations; it instills “no hope” in voting – apathy and disillusionment.

The group of conservative extremists that want to lead America count on voter apathy, particularly with the poor and low-income voters.

That demographic – the poor and low-income popula tion – represents an overlooked, and discounted voter power base, a sleeping giant. If they were to vote in strength of numbers, they would change the outcome of local elections.

It’s the local elections that weld power in the state houses.

The state legislatures are busy crafting restrictive voting processes that will influence federal elections. State legislatures are passing laws to regulate how civic courses, and African American history courses are pre sented in K-12 curricula. State legislatures are busy enacting legislation that eliminates or significantly pares down Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) activities and programs on college campuses. They are illegal in some states.

The January 6 insurrection fueled great strides of apathy. Particularly since Congress, the House and the Sen ate, failed to act decisively to hold accountable elected officials complicit in the attempted coup.

Does my vote count for something? Is my voice heard? Is the law applied to all citizens of America?

Apathy and disillusion with America.

We started down the path of dismantling the honor of the Commander in Chief in 2009. President Barack Obama, the first African American elected to the highest office, was addressing the join Congress and the nation. It was his State of the Union address. There was the Affordable Health Care Act, most Republicans opposed it.

Joe Wilson, R.SC, disrespecting the office of the President, disrespecting the decorum of the State of the Union address, became a hero of extremist obstructionist in Congress; as the President was speaking about the Health Care particulars, Wilson yelled: “You lie!”

He didn’t disrespect the man, he disrespected the office, he disrespected the President. We have rolled down hill since.

We can pull back. We can defeat apathy and disillusion. Don’t buy into the hype of extremist politics.