Among all the rights guaranteed in the Constitution, the right to vote is the most important. Without it, the people lose their power and, with it, the risk of losing the rest of their rights. That is why watching some voters squander their right to vote is so troubling.
Recent political news has kept me up at night. I fear America cannot survive another four years of Trump or Trumpism. I am unable to understand how intelligent, diligent voters can support a man who has been indicted for obstruction of justice, accused of rape, and is about to be indicted for sedition.
It would be convenient, given my politics, if all “problem” voters were Republicans, but that is not true. I have yet to hear a compelling reason to support conspiracy theory-embracing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I also doubt the wisdom of voters who seem to think politics is exclusively about which candidate can deliver the most benefits, cut the most taxes, or who has the most charisma.
What makes a problem voter? Unfortunately, there are multiple causes. The first is disengagement. The worst voter is the one who does not vote. I will take idiotic voters, such as ones voting for Candidate X because their favorite rock star endorsed him or her, over one who has more important things to do than vote.
The second cause of problem voters is laziness. Thomas Jefferson considered an educated electorate as essential to democracy. Yet too many voters do not read the news or, even worse, rely on social media for their news. The result is a group of misinformed voters who believe wild and false information because “it is on the web.”
Unfortunately, unscrupulous candidates from both parties have learned that lying can get you votes. Trump is the most prominent, but he has company. Is President Biden attempting to force all schools to teach Critical Race Theory? Is the White House refusing to release information proving the existence of extraterrestrial life?
The third cause of problem voters is the belief that, with the right leader, all problems in America will disappear. Hitler promised an end to Germany’s economic crisis that followed World War I. Trump told us that, among several things, undocumented immigrants were destroying America. He ran on solving those problems and then lied about his success. Unfortunately, the evidence of a mixed record notwithstanding, Trump’s followers still see him as a strong leader. It takes a courageous leader to call Jack Smith “deranged” and a “thug.” Right?
The fourth pitfall for many voters is the search for charisma. Today, Kamala Harris is widely disliked because “she lacks charisma” and is “unpresidential.” Some voters choose their candidates based on their age, their race, their smile, and on which celebrities endorse them. Is it any surprise that so many unqualified, arguably crazy, people run for president? The practices of some voters make this happen—the best qualified candidates are rejected not on the basis of their abilities, record, or qualifications, but on what should be irrelevant personal characteristics.
The 2024 presidential vote is still about 16 months away. Am I naïve to hope that more voters will become engaged, get educated on the issues, and choose to support a candidate who is best for the country rather than one who promises them the most?
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and other subjects.
Susan Andrews says
This seems so true. What is the solution? How do we solve this issue? Or is it something that has been part of our history – aside from “Trumpism?”
John Dean says
Thank you for reading the piece and for an excellent question.
I am an advocate of civic education. If the schools enhanced efforts to teach students the importance of voting and the importance of being a good voter, I think we would see improvement.
I think “problem voters” have been a problem throughout our history. Unfortunately, Trump is showing us what happens when voters “make a mistake.”
Jerry McConnell says
“Problem” voters could probably be more accurately defined by describing them using one or more of the 62 synonyms for the word “stupid”. That’s where the problem really lies.
John Dean says
Thank you for reading the piece and for your comment. I hesitate to call all “problem voters” stupid. Some are just lazy or immature. That is why I am hopeful that enhanced civic education might get more people to take the opportunity to vote more seriously.
Mickey Terrone says
Hello John. Let me suggest that America has gone beyond the standard, traditional descriptions of problem voters. We now have cult voters, who seem to have no sense whatsoever of right from wrong and have no concern for the honesty or integrity of their indespensible candidate. You know who I am talking about.
On the other side, you have people who struggle to find the perfect candidate who checks all the boxes, from their standpoints. They don’t grasp that no candidate is perfect and that a winning candidate has flaws.
Trump’s poor “bypassed” white supporters don’t seem to care whether he hands the Top 1% of wealthy Americans massive tax cuts and they get zilch. They believe he is sacrificing himself for them. Getting people to vote against their own best interests is the essence of demagoguery. In my view, they support Trump because they believe he supports white people. They support bigotry, racism and rely on their evangelical religious blindness to support their biblical interpretations of white supremacy. Trump is their messiah, no matter how counterfactual reality screams out “charlatan”.
Despite Joe Biden’s steady commitment to recovering from Trump’s economic chaos with massive defecits and the worst national debt crisis in our history, his ratings are artifically low. Republican rhetoric usually insists he’s the worst president in our history – regardless of reality. His landmark Infrastructure legislation is just gathering momentum in terms of impacting the national economy, so voters may wake up some morning in the near future and realize Biden is the man if he remains well through the 2024 campaign season.
You are correct in pointing toward the problem of voters who do not vote. This is a curse and stain on our country. The good news in that Republicans have so overtly acted against the best interests of average Americans, and the presence of Trump will bring people out again by the millions to vote for the Democrat, whomever it may be.
If Trump doesn’t get the nomination, there are numerous Trump-wannabees. Some are trying to out-Trump Trump but he maintains a stranglehold over the party machinery to the extent that portions of his campaign contributions go to pay his own and some of his friends’ legal bills. All but Chris Christie live in fear of upsetting Trump’s base. The tragedy of the Republican Party is that it now requires radicalism to attract voters.
Registered Democrats have the numbers to defeat Trump or any other Republican – if they vote. But they are too easily swayed, discouraged or distracted in the Big Tent. The liklihood of Trump in 2024 may well make some of these people angry, frightened or patriotic enough to vote to save democracy. Many voted this way in 2020. They should be at least as determined to vote for whomever the Democrat candidate may be, however imperfect.
Republicans need Trump. He has convinced the base that he is the only one who can make America great again. To many deluded fantasy world Republican Trumpists, I doubt they will cross the street to vote for some Trump wannabee.
It appears extremist media has taken its toll on our democratic republic. IMO, this is a large part of the source of problem voting in America. Perhaps this overt extential threat to democracy of Trumpism will finally ring enough alarm bells in the minds of Americans that they will come out to vote in the biggest numbers ever to end Trumpism.
Nicolo F. Tartaglia says
With respect, this article and many of the comments that follow strike me as extraordinarily tone deaf. For starters, voter turn out in both the 2016 and 2020 elections were by all measures enormous, so the premise that it’s an issue of voter engagement seems somewhat thin.
In fact, to attribute voter disenfranchisement to character flaws such as laziness or ignorance seems to be a convenient trope to establish oneself as superior to those they happen to disagree with or generally look down upon.
Disenfranchisement is born of a lack of trust in the institutions themselves, caused by both parties and those who occupy the comfortable positions of wealth and power. The sheer cynicism of many in these ranks is apparent and astounding to ordinary Americans. They are not lazy or stupid, but observant. They have families to feed and lives to live. After all, why vote one way and be told that your candidate is a fraud, then vote another way only to discover that he or she actually is? More to the point, both the 2016 and 2020 elections have been derided as illegitimate DESPITE massive voter turn out.
Most arguments in these pages follow the following archetype: “The people I disagree with can only hold their beliefs as a result of some deficiency of character, they are a member of a particular group or have some inherent lack of special enlightenment. Therefore, any view they hold is de facto illegitimate and possibly dangerous. They must be enlightened, marginalized or otherwise corrected. The survival of democracy demands it.” Turn on Fox, MSNBC or CNN it doesn’t matter, it’s the same. Read the opinion pages of the Times (New York or Epoch).
Most people, however are just worried about making payroll and God bless them for it.
The horses we ride have grown taller on the back of our brethren who feed them. Perhaps we would be well advised to climb down before we fall off.
Mickey Terrone says
According to the Center for Public Integrity, 66.6% of the 239 million eligible American voters cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Then there are the registered voters, of which a much higher percentage voted (94%). That figure is high by any measure if you are fooling yourself when about 80 million citizens did not vote.
What should be painfully obvious to all of us is that about 80 million eligible Americans did not vote for a number of reasons. I suppose it is fair to say that some didn’t trust our “institutions” as you said. Perhaps it would also be fair to say that some, if not many or most of these people were probably not registered, or simply didn’t understand their rights and responsibilities in our democratic republic.
I also have to wonder what percentage of these non-voters are minorities. I note that many of the states with the lowest end of voting percentage are Oklahoma (55.3%), West Virginia (57%), Tennessee (59.7%), Arkansas (56.5%), Mississippi (60.4%), Texas (60.8%) and Hawaii (55.7%). My former state, Georgia, rose to 68% in 2020 but only with the extraordinary efforts of Stacy Abrams and the volunteer organization she has developed.
With the Voting Rights Act now gutted by SCOTUS, further erosion of Americans’ voting franchise may well be created where certain state legislatures and governors seek to minimize voter turnout to their own advantage. With AI coming into the picture, I expect to see social media spots with Biden and Harris emploring voters not to vote at all.
If anyone thinks our voting process is fine with one of three eligible Americans not voting, think again. These are likely among the poorest, most isolated and least educated among us. I believe its fair to say that if they are not encouraged and given ample opportunities to get registered and get out to vote, we are allowing the promise of America to slip away for about a third of our eligible voters.
In some countries that value high turnout for the voting franchise, national holidays exist to encourage voter turnout. Here, we are closing polling places and cutting voting hours. This is no accident.
Nicolo F. Tartaglia says
As a mathematician and engineer, I always look at the precise output of statistics with some level of skepticism. Not because the underlying theory is unsound, but because most of the time it cannot be replicated with the same precision that the results are used to for. Especially by those who quote them. However, I don’t deny those numbers, what I question is drawing broad conclusions. For example when New York State, one of the richest in the country, is at 61.1% and has a population of 14.2MM, but no one seems to mention it. Is that statistically significant compared to Mississippi or Texas? (Texas is also not exactly a poor state either). The statistical significance of all this aside, if we are allowed to draw broad conclusions, can I posit that the reason no one mentions New York is because it happens to blow in a direction that “Center for Public Integrity” finds more pleasing? Here’s a statistic: In 2018, Turkey reported a 89% turn out rate in the national election (Pew Research Center). Sounds like a model democracy to me. Also, Stacy Abrams, whom you cite, and doesn’t exactly have a great record of accepting election results, lost to Brian Kemp despite the increased turn out of 68% you attributed to her activities. Do you think she is fine with that? How would you explain that result?
Speaking of SOCTUS, you fail to mention they upheld Section 2 of the VRA in June. Presumably, they missed this opportunity to further “gut” the Act. Luckily we all know it doesn’t matter anyway, because after Roe was overturned, it is clear to any educated right-minded person that the highest court in the land is nothing other than Harlan Crow’s star chamber. Thank God a courageous (but anonymous) Hero of the Republic leaked the draft opinion ahead of time, otherwise Democracy would have died in darkness, right? Indeed, there is no one who benifits cynically eroding trust in that clearly corrupt institution. Perhaps we should ask our good friend Nicolas Maduro what is views on the court system is in Venezuela?
The voting issue as it has been articulated lately in our country is about power. Not the power of equal representation, but power to those who need the votes. All this is another cynical ploy by the comfortable establishment on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay and those who benefit from their benevolence. How to get power and how to keep it once they have it is their sole concern. To that point, I read with amusement and sadness today that top Republican donors are flooding RFK’s campaign with donations. Democrats did the same thing with Donald Trump in 2016 and with his preferred candidates during the Republican primary of 2022. Let’s get put the vote indeed.
My view is simply this, if we are really interested in helping the poorest, least educated and most isolated amongst us. Then I suggest we go do that, as individuals and as a community. We need more volunteers and donations at food banks, ESL programs, job training centers and the like. To hell with these voting organizations frankly. Help people and the votes and democracy will take care of themselves. My grandfather, who survived Mussolini, told me to never trust a politician, especially one who gives you a handout. He also told me to help your neighbor best you can least you invite a dictator into your life. He wore a US flag lapel pin every day of his life. Seems like good advice in retrospect, especially considering he never completed 5th grade.