Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
But the racist issue is something that is of concern. It is not a coincidence that the heat map of racist activity in the United States looks very similar to the heat map of the vote that fueled Trump's victory. The positive here is that the majority of people who ascribe to a racist ideology is quickly dying. The negative is that the 45% of people who couldn't be bothered to vote are largely millennials and gen Xers who may never become politically engaged, so that will drive voting numbers way down.
The sad reality in the United States is that civics classes are not taken seriously in schools, and when they are they are taught with substantial bias. The core of how government works is completely missing for most students. An example is the majority think the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the same things. When asked how many articles there are in the constitution the most common answer is 10, which reflects the amendments included in the Bill of Rights. If people had to pass a basic citizenship exam before being allowed to vote, the number of votes cast would be cut down by 30-40%. Americans are voting on things they don't understand. A full two thirds of Americans cannot name their two sitting Senators from their own State. The system is broken.
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Voter turnout in Canada is low too. It's slightly higher than the USA, but not by all that much. From my experience, Americans have a much better knowledge of their history and civics than Canadians do.
The issue with voting has nothing to do with education. The issue is that the liberal/conservative dichotomy doesn't appeal to anyone but people who blindly follow their party of choice for no reason. The liberal/conservative party system is complete BS. The positions they take don't even follow any real ideology. They've taken a random group of issues and packaged them together and then twisted them to promote their own interests. Then they attack the other side's morals instead of focusing on and discussing real issues. For example, you know full well that the reason the racist heat maps coincide with Trump voters is that the cities vote primarily Democrat, and racists are less likely to live in cities.
I actively choose not to vote. And it's not because I'm not educated in the issues or not engaged politically. It's because the candidates that get chosen year over year are entirely distasteful and the parties they run for don't speak to me in any way. I've voted a couple times and they've been throw away protest votes.
Also, where does everyone get this idea that if their were more voters they wouldn't have voted for Trump. If anything the wide discrepancies between the polls and actual votes suggest the opposite. This suggests that a lot of people held their noses and voted for Trump, as the other option had no appeal. It's likely that many of the undecided non-voters would have done the same. It was basically a choice between the ultra-rich capitalist and the crooked politician who allows the ultra-rich capitalist to exist.