This is the first of a three-part series I will write on ‘Being Heard & Making Your Vote Count’. In this issue, we start with the numbers.
Democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, left wing or right wing — which political label fits you?
Gun control versus gun rights, pro-choice versus pro-life, climate change believer versus denier, open borders versus build the wall — do you overtly support one side or the other on these hot topics of our age?
If your response is that you don’t like being labeled (like me), I have some news for you. The political operatives and professionals that run the campaigns to determine who governs base everything on those defined categories. They know exactly which message to frame, to which group or demographic, in any given region, to win an election for their candidate. And they do so at a better than 90 percent efficiency rate. And you know who is responsible for their methodology? You are; along with our two-party system that has evolved over time.
I’m a numbers guy and in this case, they tell the whole story. First and most glaring is voter turnout.
Amazingly, on average, nearly half of us don’t vote. Turnout has steadily declined since 1900, with the last two presidential elections eclipsing 60 percent for the first time in decades. We have also become more polarized by political parties. A recent Gallup Poll on voter registrations showed that nationally, 31 percent are democrats, 24 percent are republicans and 42 percent are independent or undeclared. Of the 42 percent that are registered independent, about half lean (and consistently vote) for one party, split evenly. Therefore, with almost 80 percent of the vote already committed, that leaves about 20 percent of the voters to decide an election.
This highlights the assumption that all republican and democrat voters vote their party line straight down the ticket. So, ask yourself: do you vote for a candidate based on their individual position on issues or their stated platform, regardless of party? Or do you vote for a candidate solely based on political party? Research tells us that you are voting the straight party line now more than ever and trust me, the professional political operatives count on this.
There are various theories on why people vote a party line, but I think there are two reasons: first, it’s apathy. People are disinterested and believe their vote doesn’t matter because nothing will change, regardless of which candidate wins. Second, that apathy causes you to have no knowledge or understanding of individual candidate’s background, platform or intentions. You don’t do the research, but you still want to vote. So, you default to a particular party when you enter the booth.
These two reasons are also why there is an endless slew of political ads on TV and in our mailboxes every election season. Absent motivation and knowledge, the campaign operatives fill your head with negative information about their candidate’s opponent, which isn’t required by law to be totally factual. Know why? Because it works. They treat voters like sheep because we behave that way. Next issue we dig deeper into the problems.
