I’m talking about a revolution.
Not the kind that gets you tear-gassed in the streets of Hong Kong, tortured in a Syrian prison or guillotined in the Place de la Concorde.
All we have to do for this revolution is show up to vote, first in our primaries, and then Nov. 3.
All of us.
Easiest. Revolution. Ever.
This surge at the polls would indeed be a revolution because it’s a given that so many won’t show up on Election Day.
Estimates vary, but data from the U.S. Census Bureau and research from the Sentencing Project indicate that 60.4 million eligible Americans haven’t bothered to register to vote. That’s a huge number of citizens sitting on the sidelines. That’s almost the same number of people who voted for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Are you one of those nonvoters? Then the pollsters and media pundits have already counted you out.
You’re not part of their polling, because they only count registered or likely voters. You’re not part of their electoral calculus. You’re not part of their plans. And you’re sure not a part of their budget.
That’s because they’re certain you’re not going to vote. So, they look right past you. You don’t matter. If you don’t vote, you’re invisible.
But, what if our voting habits changed overnight? What if those 60 million adults who’ve been sitting out showed up Nov. 3?
Wait, you say, voting is pointless. Politicians do what they want, you argue. Democracy is broken, you shrug. Well, it’s only broken in the way that your dust-collecting exercise bike or rowing machine doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because you’re not using it.
When huge swaths of the American people don’t vote, we cede outsize power to the people who actually do vote. When you are silent at the ballot box, the shouts of a small minority fill the void.
If we as an entire nation vote, things in Washington (and in our state and local governments) will be transformed. Here’s how:
* The candidate a true majority of us decide is the best will win, not the candidate whom a loud minority wants.
