In this past mid-term election, Democrats took a huge blow, facing not only a lower number of young voters but also voters who were less willing to support Democrats. A Washington Post article reports that voters between 18-29 dropped from 18 percent in 2008 to 11 percent this past election. These same voters also backed the Democrats by only 16 points, compared to the 34 points in 2008.
These numbers raise the question of why young voter turnout reached this lowest point in two decades. One reason may be that individuals do not believe their vote would make any difference. The expected benefit from voting is lower than the cost of going to the polls and voting. It would only make sense to vote if the cost is next to nothing, if the benefits are extremely large, or if the race is expected to be extremely close. Another reason why voter turnout may be low is because the cost of becoming educated on the various issues is too high; the cost of learning all the different opinions on all the different points just doesn’t seem to pay off. Based on this reasoning, voters are rational in remaining ignorant about the issues.
Politicians understand that most voters also think this way; that it’s okay to remain rationally ignorant. That is why we see so many advertisements that do not specifically state the politician’s standpoint on issues, but rather present values and social images that may get a voter to vote for them, for example, being a “family man” or being an advocate of the “American dream.” If candidates were to address their stand on various issues, they run the risk of pushing away the ignorant voters who know nothing about them and may otherwise vote for them if they did end up going to the polls. In 2008, Obama ran the hugely successful “Change” campaign, greatly appealing to the youth nationwide. According to Downs, parties formulate policies in order to win over votes, rather than win elections to formulate policies. It could be because of this that Democrats suffered in the mid-term elections, as it seems the youth bought into the promise of change two years ago, but have not seen enough reform to draw them out to vote in this election.
1 comment:
I read a similar article to this in the New York Times last week (Young Voters Say They Feel Abandoned from October 31). It was published before the election, but it claimed that young people were less involved in this election compared to the "Obama fever" of 2008. Many young voters feel abandoned since Obama entered office, and his recent efforts to reach out is too little too late.
Instead of the rational ignorance argument you pose here, the ny times article quotes a college student as saying it's not a "fad" anymore to be politically active. Young supporters of Obama in 2008 felt apart of a national movement and received a high social benefit. With midterm elections, maybe young people simply find it less fun to be involved in politics.
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