I’ve noticed over the past year a massive burnout when it comes to politics on the part of many people on the right, in the center and on the left. It isn’t just due to the fact our politics now seems to be mostly about yelling, name calling, defining and demonizing the other side and/or those that support the other side (or write something perceived to be sympathetic to the other side). [icopyright one button toolbar]
I think it’s also because it’s now getting so predictable what people will say, when they’ll be outraged (or pretend outrage). So you have larger numbers of people tuning out and a smaller number participating and deciding. And so it was during the mid-terms:
Lowest turnout since WW2: Final numbers are still being tallied, but at this point it looks pretty clear that turnout in these midterms was the lowest overall in 70 years. Turnout of the voting-eligible population was just 36.4 percent, according to the projection from the United States Elections Project, run by Dr. Michael McDonald at the University of Florida. That’s down from the 41 percent that turned out in 2010. You have to go all the way back to 1942 for lower numbers when turnout in that midterm was just 33.9 percent. They had a pretty good excuse back then — many adult-age Americans were preoccupied with fighting in a world war.
But this is not to say there wasn’t some increase:
Turnout increased in 14 states: Turnout actually increased in 14 states, plus D.C., from 2010-2014. In 10 of the 14, there were competitive to potentially competitive Senate races. In nine of the 14, there were governors’ races.
Overall, though?
Americans were (rightfully) turned off by the festival of polemics, promises, and inaccurate assertions now passes for political debate. It may as well be one, big radio talk show.
Actually, in a lot of ways it now is.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.