I will probably have more to say, actually, about the midterms in a few days, especially in light of recent tragic events. I'm recovering from a bad bout of stomach flu as I write this to you. I would probably still be in bed for the sake of my recovery. But I've decided to get out of bed for at least a little while to write this.
These days, my legal work includes a great deal of time spent with firms that review documents produced for litigation. On one such project recently, in a conversation with a colleague on a project, the subject turned to politics (a lot of this work is done in D.C., so that's probably not surprising. We started talking about why young people generally don't vote, and, on the basis of current reporting, are probably not going to vote in next week's midterm elections. He advanced the theory, advanced many other places in the MSM and social media, that young people don't vote because they don't see themselves as gaining or losing anything by not doing so.
Then he surprised me by including himself as one of those young people.
I say "surprised" because I assumed that someone who had been through both undergraduate and law schools, passed more than one bar exam, and worked on a regular basis in what is arguably the political center not just of the nation, but the world, would understand the power of voting. I would not necessarily expect that person to have an appreciation of all of the sacrifices that have been made for the sake of the right to vote, although I would hope that he (or she) would do so. But I would think they would know that voting affects a broad range of issues that ultimately do affect young people--the economy they graduate into, the ability to pay for tuition, and the assurance of health care coverage, for example.
Apparently, however, it's not enough for this cohort to make political appeals based on issues that affect everyone. Somehow, they're expecting to get something specifically, uniquely targeted at them, regardless of its impact on anyone else. And, even worse, they seem to think that, by not voting, the right political appeal will just come along looking for them. To put it another way, they don't think like citizens, putting the interests of the country first. Rather, they think like consumers, regarding themselves as a market that will, sooner or later, be "served" by a politician wise enough to do so.
But that's not how politics works today, if it has ever worked that way at all. On the Republican side of the nation's partisan divide, the pursuit of power at the expense of every other consideration is its only motivating force. The GOP pursues power largely for the sake of holding onto it, so that it can protect itself, as well as its principal funders, the investor class.
If you are not a significant member of that class (and 99% percent of us are not), well, the Republicans are still interested in you. But not as a market to be served. Rather, as a market to serve them.
I shared with my colleague a quote that I am fond of sharing in these circumstances: "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you." I made the mistake of attributing it to Brecht; judging from the Internet, its provenance seems a bit uncertain. Regardless of the source, however, it has always been true, and remains true. Even in a world where it may be hard to find politicians perfectly or mostly aligned with you, it is nevertheless absolutely essential, especially in this political climate, to practice what can be referred to as "defensive voting." At the very least, do what you can to protect not only yourself, but any other people or causes you care about, from the potential of greater harm to your interests should the results go to a candidate less aligned with those interests than someone else might be. Perhaps this explains it somewhat better than I'm doing here; it's worth a look, in any case.
In any case, my colleague was not particularly impressed with the quote. I hope and pray that you will feel differently.
And vote next month like your freedom depends on it. Because it does.
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