“American democracy in crisis”

I feel that this article buried the lead (or lede, as they like to write now):

81% of seniors say they are certain to vote in the mid-terms, versus only 35% of the youngest voters (18-29). That should bode well for the G.O.P., but it mystifies me. Those youngsters will have to live 50 years or more with the consequences of the elections, yet so many of them give zero fucks.

Lead vs lede

“Lede” has only been in the Webster dictionaries since 2008. Before that it was simply newsroom jargon, but not even that for long. The earliest appearance of the term dates back only to the 1970s.

(Even now I guess it would be considered an Americanism. It is still not in the OED except as “obs. variant of lead n. and v.” It appeared as a spelling of the metal as early as 1300, and as a variant spelling of the verb meaning “to cause others to follow” as early as 1375. Remember that English did not have uniform spelling guidelines until the middle of the 18th century. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1755. Before that, no source was considered authoritative, so one might be able to find any word spelled in any imaginable way. Ol’ Billy Shakespeare wrote out his full name three times in signatures. He used three different spellings, and none of the three is spelled as we do today: William Shaksper; William Shakspere; William Shakspeare.)

One thought on ““American democracy in crisis”

  1. Young people are having so much fun, and spending so much time learning stuff that they don’t really care about in school (or, later, trying to make enough money to survive – many of the young people I meet in retail are working two jobs), that the idea of spending more time learning about the issues in a serious way makes their eyes glaze over.

    Also, although they are concerned about the future, it is generally their own personal future, which they do not see as being heavily influenced by elections (except by war when there is a draft, which there has not been for 40+ years).

    This makes easy cynicism about the uselessness of voting attractive. Some people never outgrow this. It also tends to make “leaving things to the grownups” attractive, although on a national level this should have been torpedoed by the fact that Trump is transparently NOT a grownup in any but a chronological sense.

    But once the kids are grown, and once they have retired, and the passions of youth have faded, quite a few people have the time and inclination to study the politics of the day, and begin to care about things that will affect their own future (Obamacare/Medicare/Social Security) or their children and grandchildren’s futures. So, having the leisure time to do so, they vote.

    Although I have written this in an authoritative tone, it all just my opinion (except for the thing about your people with two jobs and possible school too).

    I would be very interested if there all fewer abstract and more concrete reasons for this phenomenon.

Comments are closed.