In today’s New York Sun, there is an op-ed piece by Laura Ingraham who explains why, in the big picture, low voter turnout today is a sign of relative contentment. It’s an interesting argument: the author believes that voters turn out only when they truly have something at stake to turn out for — Newt Gingrich, David Duke, Bill Clinton.
But in the “bigger” picture, I wonder if low voter turnout is really endemic of people feeling there is nothing at stake — that politics are sewn up by money and voting is only a feel-good exercise recommended to us by the plutocrats that run the country.
I hope this is not the case. I voted today, as I vote for absolutely every election, in part because my grandmother, born in Russia, cherished her right to vote here. If only there was a referendum on the ballot today to limit campaign financing.