When you pay $3.15 for a pack of cigarettes … $1.56 for a
gallon of gas … or $3.90 for a six-pack, ask yourself: how many
dimes does the taxman get?
Own
a home, a car or a boat? Each monthly payment includes a hefty
cut for the taxman.
Now
look at your pay stub. How much is deducted for local, state and
federal income taxes, for Medicare and Social Security? How much
— $20,000, $50,000 or more — has the taxman raked in in payroll
deductions since you started working?
It
all adds up. What does not add up is this: After investing
thousands of dollars a year, year after year, in their
government, only one in three Americans will vote in this
midterm election.
Two
out of three will sit home and let someone else do it. That’s
like giving your brother-in-law $500 to go play the slots in Las
Vegas. You can kiss that half grand good-bye.
But
more and more of us are doing exactly that.
What is insane is who is staying home: the young, the destitute
and the angry white male.
According to the Center for the Study of the American
Electorate, voter participation by 18 to 24 year-olds has
declined 40.4 percent since 1966.
The
working poor, those making under $11,000 a year, have seen their
voter rate drop by a whopping 47.8 percent since 1966. The next
cohort, those earning less than $16,649 per year, saw a 29
percent drop.
And
those angry white men — the ones the media portrays as beer
drinking, blue collar couch potatoes who complain about
everything — well, their voting rate has dropped 27.7 percent
over the last four decades.
Those long-term trends have a flip side: older, richer and
better-educated voters are having an impact on elections that
far outweighs their actual numbers.
When those making less than $11,100 turn out at 19 percent and
those making more than $55,000 turnout at 49.2 percent, guess
who elected officials pander to?
When high school dropouts turnout at 19.4 percent and college
grads turn out at 59 percent, guess who gets the shaft when
government programs are created?
In
politics, squeaky wheels don’t get greased;
voting blocs get the goodies.
And
working families are a voting bloc that can upset this election
... if more and more of us turn out on November 5th.
One
vote here, two votes there adds up. And, because those
additional votes would not otherwise be cast, they can carry the
day. It is that close.
This November’s election will decide who controls Congress, who
controls the levers of power at the state level, who decides how
much taxes you will pay, and who gets the goodies — young
working families or older wealthy families.
If
you stay home, someone else will make the key decisions — and
you will have to live with their choices.
So,
if you don’t vote, don’t vent.
|