Locked out of our own house

News & Trends

Conventional wisdom has it that Americans are failing to vote because they don't care about politics. Not so. We are interested. but feel we no longer have an effect.

Voters see themselves squeezed out of democracy's count by a de facto ruling political class made up of power brokers, political action committees, special-interest groups, lobbyists, and the media, reports Richard Harwood. As president of the Harwood Group, a public-issues research firm in Bethesda, Maryland, he has been looking into the relationship between citizens and their government for the Kettering inundation.

"Apathy suggests the making of a voluntary, choice," says the group's report, Citizens and Politics. "Most Americans feel that today's political situation has been thrust upon them. It is not something they have--or would have--chosen for themselves."

People engage in specific areas of public life only when they feel they can make a difference. It is precisely this connection that has atrophied. The net result: frustration, anger, cynicism, and, most of all, a pervading sense of impotence.

The frustration is felt at the state level. Unable to trust their representatives, citizens are putting issues on ballots so they can make decisions themselves. Limitations on the number of hems for elected officials and dedicated taxes are also citizen efforts to recapture control over the political process.

Frustration is also the force behind the anti-incumbent fever sweeping the country. "They're grasping at anything they can get to make the system respond," explains Harwood.

Citizens want to do more than simply register their preferences every year or two at the voting booth. They want to make sure the right issues are being framed. They want to know their voice matters in politics on a more regular basis, and that there is at least the possibility they can help create change.

ILLUSTRATION

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