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Recapturing Democracy
By Curt Firestone
Jan 17, 2002 -- Is the United States a democracy if the majority of people do not vote?Patriotism and nationalism have been at their height since September 11, 2001. Yet, the turnout for Seattle city elections in November was extremely low. Apparently, this sense of overwhelming national pride did not transcend itself into participation in the voting process.
Only 40 percent of the registered voters cast their ballot for mayor of Seattle. Only 33 percent voted for City Council members with four races being contested.
Why?
It cannot be for lack of money spent by candidates. Mayoral candidates spent $1.7 million to get Seattlites to vote. City Attorney and City Council candidates spent another $755,000. All together they spent $14 for each person who voted.
Nor was it for lack of publicity. The two daily newspapers seemed to run a story about the mayoral race every day for months leading up to the election.
And it certainly was not about candidate similarity. Nickels and Sidran portrayed very different personalities. They ran on the difference in their management styles and solutions for the traffic crisis. One of them even generated an "anybody but him" campaign.
Yet, even in times of a presidential election, only a little more than 50 percent of the registered voters turnout. And it is said that only 50 percent of eligible adults bother to register to vote.
It would seem that Americans do not want to participate in their democracy. Or maybe most of them do not believe that we have a democracy and believe that voting is just a shill act.
After all, Al Gore won more votes across the USA than George Bush. Yet, Bush is president.
There is also the fact that Democrats and Republicans did not abide by the results of the Washington State primary and chose their own delegates to the nominating conventions. So party officials (not the people) choose the final candidates for president.
Many people think that it makes little difference who gets elected because candidates and elected officials tend to sound and act alike. Politicians tend to always appeal to the perceived social/economic center which has been defined as "mainstream" by pundits.
Redistricting every years almost always protects incumbents. Little effort is made to put communities of interest within the same political boundaries.
The majority of people who vote are in higher economic classes and older. Youth, the economically disadvantaged, people of color especially those of low incomes, non-English speaking citizens and others make up the majority of self-selected disenfranchised voters. For them, the current "democracy" does not warrant voting participation.
Solutions may seem complex and overwhelming; but, then, democracy is complex because everyone is supposed to be equally involved.
We need:
1. A federal constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote and uniform election procedures in all 50 states.
2. Campaign finance reform that truly levels the campaign playing field.
3. Political parties that are open to all citizens at all levels.
4. Political parties other than the Democrats and Republicans that have equal participatory opportunity.
5. Proportional representative voting as used in most non-dictatorships in the world. This guarantees that every vote will count.
6. A renewed sense of pride in our country that makes electoral involvement a way of life.
America, we need to wake up and make some course corrections before we can no longer say: "America is a great democracy."
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