I know many people who tell me they are “not into politics”, either because they don’t understand the issues, they think today’s issues are too complex, or they don’t feel their vote matters. Other people are bored by politics or feel they don’t know enough about an issue or issues to make a stance one way or another - this is what many people I know told me back in ‘03 when I asked them their opinion about the US going to war in Iraq. This is tragic in my opinion. How do we “not care”? To me, it is like being on a trip with half a dozen of your friends and saying: “I don’t care what we do… you guys decide” and just letting everyone decide to go places you don’t want to go, eat at places you don’t want to eat, etc.
I think another big reason for apathy, maybe the biggest right now, is that people simply think the system is corrupt and politicians are only out for themselves and special interests so they give up.. sadly this breeds the cycle of apathy. Once intelligent, well meaning citizens stop caring and participating in the system with their vote and/or advocating for their beliefs or supporting good candidates for office the people start to loose their voice as the corporations and special interests (who have to much vested interest to not care) then gain more political power relative to every day people since some people have now stopped voting. This creates more disillusionment among voters and more people stop caring and the cycle feeds upon itself. I believe this is a large part of the reason why, generally speaking, there are rarely political candidates who have the peoples best interests in mind.
I think another big reason for apathy, maybe the biggest right now, is that people simply think the system is corrupt and politicians are only out for themselves and special interests so they give up.. sadly this breeds the cycle of apathy. Once intelligent, well meaning citizens stop caring and participating in the system with their vote and/or advocating for their beliefs or supporting good candidates for office the people start to loose their voice as the corporations and special interests (who have to much vested interest to not care) then gain more political power relative to every day people since some people have now stopped voting. This creates more disillusionment among voters and more people stop caring and the cycle feeds upon itself. I believe this is a large part of the reason why, generally speaking, there are rarely political candidates who have the peoples best interests in mind.