As youth political engagement rates drop lower and lower, pollsters and sociologists alike look for the answer. In the past two elections, less than 50% of 18 to 29-year-olds have cast a ballot.
America is facing record high levels of polarization. This has effectively split American youth into two overwhelming groups. The first is young folks moving to the right, largely due to frustrations with identity politics and a worsening economy. The second is young adults with far left beliefs, i.e. the ‘radical left’ and ‘woke mob’.
Granted, there has been a historic political realignment during the Trump era. MAGA (Make America Great Again) has created a transgression of young men — many of whom feel forgotten by a larger and more diverse era. These men, especially white and Latino men, flock to Trump. These are generally the men consistently overpowering young moderate democrats, I.E., the bulwark.
There are a few plausible reasons why the Republican Party has a youth base where the Democratic Party essentially does not. Trump demonstrates power. He’s an older white man who’s seemly invincible: able to get away with sexual assault, poor financial decisions, and statements that would end the run of any other career politician. He’s anti-establishment and unlike many of the ‘suits’ in Washington. He offers, both symbolically and in his policy, a return to an American status quo, where the ‘normative American’ once again looks like a middle class blue collar man. Young men may align with him in an effort to emulate him, or, an effort to return to Trump’s vision — a reality that benefits them. Democratic youth, although consistent voters, are not large in numbers. Why this group is so small is a unique problem: the most passionate of the democratic base are so far left they don’t believe voting is effective.
This group, the far leftists, are harder to pin down. The same causes of frustration — economic downturn, culture wars and a country which may seem at a standstill on energy, identity and civil rights — create a differently behaving constituent. These leftists are willing to protest, volunteer and participate in mutual aid, but not vote. This phenomenon was demonstrated in 2016, when a large percentage of Bernie Sanders voters refused to cast a vote in the general election as a manner of protest.
Make no mistake, there exists a portion of eligible youth voters who care and vote consistently democratic. But, the arguably more important and interesting groups are the ‘radical leftists’ who refuse to vote, and, secondarily, the youth portion who simply don’t care and don’t vote.
Many radical leftists see voting as pandering to the system and fueling the electoral college and all of its problems. Many see voting as consenting to the perceived systems of oppression, which often gerrymander districts and make constituents’ votes count for less. This has disproportionate effects on black, brown, and poor Americans. Leftists who generally care more about civil movements and marginalized rights are less inclined to ‘use’ or ‘buy into’ this system, AKA less inclined to vote. In the same way, leftists are more inclined to protest.
Radicalists who refuse to vote do not dismantle the system. They do not create real change in the electoral system, and they do not ‘stick it to the man’. Spoiler alert: ‘the man’ does not care if you vote or not. Congress has had over 700 attempts to reform the electoral college. The game changer is not going to be based on low voter turnout. Usually, although not always, efforts to change the electoral college gain momentum after elections where the popular vote winner and electoral vote winner are not the same (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.) Bush versus Gore in 2000 held the most successful efforts at overturning the electoral college – an example of the popular not squaring with the electoral.
For this reason, many leftists refuse to vote entirely, saying the popular vote is the system that cares about individual votes, and the electoral system is not effective, i.e., their votes don’t matter. It’s as if we’ve forgotten that electoral votes are determined by popular votes.
Without a doubt, to vote in the face of systemic weakening of the power of an individual vote is discouraging, but it is not the whole story. In 2024, Trump won Nevada by only 46,000 votes. That’s just a little less than four percent of eligible voters in Clark county.
The leftists who think they’re protesting or dismantling systems by not voting are failing their self-described values. No one in power positions care about them abstaining from the vote, and, worse yet, thousands of people, often from the same communities leftists claim allyship with, suffer first and worst from the policies put in place when candidates unfavorable to leftists are elected. Elected, once again, by thin margins.
Leftists who refuse to vote because of unfavorable policies need to be pragmatic. If the vote is to kill puppies or let puppies run free, and you refuse to vote because you believe we should be giving puppies a home, you are effectively still voting to kill puppies.
Voting will not solve everything, and asking for candidates with more representative views is entirely reasonable. Demanding action from your representatives is entirely reasonable. Taking supplementary action, such as protesting, mutual aid and providing community-based resources is not only reasonable but admirable.
But, to not vote simply because of an imperfect system is not reasonable, and it’s certainly not effective. Many leftists feel their vote simply doesn’t matter in the system, and it’s true that the electoral college system means a vote is not directly counted on a 1:1 basis. But we do know that an absence of vote matters on a measurable level.
This is similar logic to the nonpassionate who don’t vote. They cannot imagine their vote mattering and cannot imagine caring enough to get to the polls, yet they care when gas prices rise, state funding gets cut and health care policies change.
Even if you don’t believe your vote carries the weight it deserves, its absence certainly does. If you don’t believe your vote matters, congratulations. That’s exactly what the opposition is hoping for.
The superiority complex of never voting for someone imperfect may save an ego, but it will not save our country.
Not voting imperfectly may be virtue signalling, but it comes at the cost of hurting the same communities to which you signal.
You are not a ‘radical’ or ‘logical’ for not voting, you are betraying your community.
