Yesterday, while out registering voters in a modest apartment complex in Orlando, Florida, I had an epiphany after talking to a maintenance man named Alfredo. For years, potential voters of modest means, men and women without much education, have been telling me that they don't vote because they think that one vote just doesn't matter, and also that the system is irreversibly stacked against people like them. It was the same old story with Alfredo, whom his friends call Freddie.
Members of minority groups, people like Alfredo, suffer disproportionately from a whole raft of public health problems related to being of lower educational level, low income and from prejudice, among other pressures they face. They stand to benefit greatly from policies like the new healthcare bill and humane, reformed immigration policies. But there was no point in my discussing these political topics and key public health issues with Alfredo until he registered to vote. I had to get past his "I'm checked out" posture before we could even start to talk about the public health issues or any political issues.
I have heard this my-vote-doesn't-matter refrain all over Central Florida -- in Publix parking lots, in the wide and high halls of Home Depots and on the shores of Lake Eola. Hearing it has always frustrated, aggravated and puzzled me. I keep thinking something which a recent poll reported in the New York Times dramatically confirmed: If all the people who could register to vote were registered and did vote, the Democrats would be massively strong right now. With regard to the 2012 presidential race, President Obama would be poised to beat Mitt Romney in a landslide.
My conversation with Alredo yesterday finally helped me understand that many modest folks avoid participation in elections for reasons that run much deeper than cynicism. I learned from Alfredo that avoidance of participation in the electoral process also stems from great fear and confusion.
At first Alfredo told me in a heavy Spanish accent: "I've never voted. I don't bother with that. Why bother? My vote won't matter. It's all rigged... "
To which I replied, "Well it's a great thing for the rich people that a lot of ordinary people feel like you do. Because the rich people NEVER fail to vote in every single election and they always get exactly what they want."
I was tired from having been out knocking on doors in the heat and humidity of late summer in Orlando. I didn't really have the heart left to fuss much with Alfredo.
I told him, Listen, Alfredo, it's your right to sit out the election. You really don't want to vote, don't vote. But please don't complain about the way things are going in this country if you don't vote because people who d don't vote are giving away the power that they do have. And that's what happens all the time. Ordinary people, working people decide to let the guys with five Cadillacs and too many houses to keep track of run the whole show. That can be your choice. It's a free country."
"Okay, okay," Alfredo finally said to me, as I offered him the clip board again and he registered. I didn't have any forms in Spanish so I had to translate the form for him, pointing to each line and telling him what information belonged where; name, address, driver's license number and so on. He filled out the form, and I felt like I'd snagged a tough one.
Then, his defenses lowered quite a bit, he said to me, in pained tones, "But now I have to vote! And it's so confusing! There are so many things they ask. I don't know who all these people are... "
I was really surprised.
It finally hit me that the cynicism probably is, for lots of the "it's-all-rigged" nonvoters, a facade. They are understandably overwhelmed by the deluge of meaningless information and slick, confusing commercials they encounter. Here in Florida, the TV, radio, billboards and our telephone lines are constantly pulsing with bad information in huge amounts. Not to mention the Internet.
I told Alfredo not to worry about the whole long ballot come November. I suggested that he could go into the voting booth and just vote for President Obama, for whom he had already expressed a strong preference, and ignore nearly all of the rest of it. I couldn't resist putting in a plug for Senator Bill Nelson, who I explained was a decent, caring guy from the Panhandle who had once been an astronaut and now works really hard for the folks on the Space Coast. This seemed to reassure Alfredo somewhat.
To really convince him that it was okay to vote for one or two of the people on the ballot and ignore the rest, I said, "Listen, Alfredo, if you have five trees to trim and you only have time to trim two, you don't worry about ignoring the rest that day. Voting is the same. You can vote for Obama for President and for Bill Nelson and call it quits right there. You're done with those two votes and it will still make a huge difference."
Before I left the leasing office for the complex where Alfredo works, I spoke to another employee there whom I had registered to vote a few hours earlier that day.
Her name was Dana. She'd moved from New York to Florida three years ago to work as a salesperson. Both being New Yorkers, we had easily established a sort of natural rapport. "Listen, Dana" I said, "Will you be Alfredo's' voting buddy when early voting starts? Maybe you can see that he goes to vote. Maybe you two can go together one day during lunch or something."
People ought not to fear voting and find the process so daunting.
I know that the public schools are overwhelmed with pressures to educate children in areas that might once have been considered the purview of parents. Still, I think that every school ought to start educating children in civics from elementary school right up through high school graduation. Furthermore, registering teenagers to vote ought to be a part of what high schools do routinely.
Our country is suffering under a wave of highly effective voter suppression laws. These represent reprehensible attempts to keep power firmly in the hands of the already powerful. These powerful actors simply do not care about addressing our nation's public health issues. Ignorance, fear and confusion are proving great allies to the greedy members of 1% as they fight, by any means, to stay on top and climb ever higher. Maybe the schools that these moneyed interests have been hacking away at for so long still have the potential to act as a counterforce. Maybe.
Our country is suffering a wave of voter suppression laws designed to keep power in the hands of the already entrenched. The moneyed, powerful interests behind the Super PACs behind these laws do not care about addressing our nation's public health issues. Ignorance, fear and confusion are proving great allies to these members of 1% as they fight, by any means, to stay on top and climb ever higher. Maybe the schools that these moneyed interests have been hacking away at for so long can still act as a counterforce. Maybe schools can help prepare a new generation of voters to stand up for their own interests and for leaders who will act for the greater good when it comes to seriously addressing pressing public health issues.
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