To vote or not to vote

To+vote+or+not+to+vote

By Shivam Sharma

Democracy, which aspires to be an egalitarian utopia, seems to represent the most idealistic of political philosophies.

It has been a cornerstone of the modern world, providing the foundations for a structured society in which economy and technology have flourished.

But our imperfect reality has no space for perfect ideologies, and like any other ideology, the application of democratic principles and process to the real world has always been riddled with flaws and obstacles.

What is undeniable, though, is the fact that, at every step, democratic ideology strives to put power in the hands of the common man.

That power only exists if those eligible take advantage of it.

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The 2014 midterm election presented Americans with an opportunity to vest this power, with the ballot box as their tool. Despite this, the voter turnout was pitiful.

In a country with over 146 million registered voters, only 36.5 percent cast a ballot.

More striking is the fact that only 13 percent of those who turned up to vote belonged to the 18- to 29-year-old age group. This isn’t much better than the 2010 midterm turnout, when the group made up only 12 percent of the voting public.

The awfully low numbers of young voters, often chalked up to voter apathy, represent a very complex obstacle to the democratic process.

The lack of young voter participation is crucially detrimental to democracy. As the most dynamic age group living in such a tumultuous time, 18- to 29-year-olds have unique problems that require fair representation.

I’m not a U.S. citizen, therefore I cannot vote, but I wanted to understand the aforementioned voter apathy in this country for myself. In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, I decided to ask friends and acquaintances whether they were going to vote and why.

I spoke to about 15 people, and only two of them said they were going to vote. The reasons for not voting ranged from complete indifference to politics to people feeling that they didn’t know enough about the candidates to cast an informed vote. Others felt their vote wouldn’t make any tangible difference, or that they were powerless in the democratic process.

The midterm elections, which determine governors, state representatives and local officials, are deeply important to the community. They provide an opportunity through suffrage to affect change in one’s immediate surroundings, town, county and state.

This exercise is at the very heart of democracy — in fact, it is what democracy is all about.

The fact that young voters refrain from participating in this process is a serious failure of democracy at the grassroots level. Young people are at the forefront in every country of this rapidly changing world. They occupy today’s universities and workforce. They will shape the decisions of the future.

Their voices in the governance of the country remain largely unheard when they should be echoing deep in the chambers of Congress.

While I sympathize with the refusal to vote in face of uninspiring candidates and ineffectual political campaigns, I refuse to believe that the individual vote wields no power.

Some young voters are convinced that his or her ballot affects little to no change, but they must realize that democracy is, and has always been, a cumulative process.

A single ballot might appear to make no difference, but the power of suffrage is in the collective vote.

Each individual ballot not cast lessens that power.

Young people, who play an absolutely vital role in the technology, social, economic and entrepreneurial sectors, have the ability and opportunity to vest their power in suffrage in order to get the government to cater to their needs and shape the development of the country in the mold of their vision for the future.

They must act together, and they must also be patient because it will take a certain degree of time to see their vote make a tangible difference.

For democracy to succeed, it takes time. It is the price democracy pays to meet its goals of equality and liberalism.

Older democracies such as the United States and the United Kingdom have much more efficient and streamlined governance systems than younger democracies such as the ones in India or Turkey.

But, still, voting today does not mean change tomorrow. But it does mean change, which many people, especially those in younger age groups with instant gratification lifestyles, seem to forget.

To vote, then, is to put faith in an ideology that has served us quite well so far.

Not to vote, as many young people chose to do, is to accept stagnancy and to surrender power put in the hands of the common man by the Constitution.

Shivam is a senior in Engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].