It’s really easy to blame non-voters when you have the privilege of civic literacy, do not face voter disenfranchisement, do not live paycheck to paycheck, do not have a job that will fire you for ‘other reasons’ when you take off to vote, do not have an abusive spouse that will watch you fill in your mail in ballot if you vote, do not have to walk an hour away to the voting poll because you can’t drive, do not have a permanent address for a mail in ballot, so on and so forth.
Yes, there are lazy ‘I’m not political’ morons who are willfully ignorant and don’t vote. But let’s not pretend that everything about American infrastructure including car dependency, anti-homelessness laws, understaffed voting polls, centralized media and fake news, aren’t all designed to make voting harder than it should be and disproportionately target minorities.
Getting a quality education or having parents who did is a privilege. No baby was born knowing how to vote. The vast majority of non-voters don’t even know how to start, let alone how to take time off to vote or when their mail-in ballot window is. Many might not have the required IDs and need to jump through another hoop to vote.
To non-voters, the voting process can be as daunting as getting your driver’s license the first time, except they’re doing it alone, juggling 3 jobs and raising kids. They simply don’t have the time or mental energy to go through bureaucracy and mentally keeping every deadline and paperwork in their minds.
Civic literacy is a privilege because the fact that you understand the importance of voting and know enough about the process to plan ahead of it means that you grew up in circumstances that allowed you to do so.
Calling people lazy for not voting is like calling people assholes for not buying cage-free eggs. t’s very easy to not give a shit about either when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, and it’s very easy to perceive complaints about this as virtue signalling.
You’re not getting anyone to vote by calling them lazy. Don’t be angry. Be useful and be actionable. If you actually want more people to vote, understand the systemic barriers behind why so many don’t vote, educate others on it, and make a difference.