did you know the only income bracket where the majority of the members voted in the 2014 election was people who make more than $100,000 a year? i didn’t.
Only in the most secure segment of Americans did Pew find that a simple majority planned to support Republican candidates. As financial security decreased, the category that benefitted most was not the Democrats, but rather “OTHER/NOT SURE” – indicating that the person being surveyed was not heavily engaged in the political process, and unlikely to vote:
John Halpin, an analyst at the Center for American Progress who runs its “States of Change” project, provided figures derived from the Current Population Survey to The Intercept that show how large the voting disparities are between whites without a college degree (typically referred to as working class) and those who graduated college. In 2010, for instance, turnout among white working-class voters was 41.9 percent. For those with college degrees, the turnout was 63.5 percent. In 2012’s presidential election, 57 percent of working-class whites participated, while 79 percent of those holding college degrees took part.
not voting makes you privileged
this is exactly why any framework for understanding the political demographics of the united states which is founded on the assumption that the majority of the people affiliate with the 2 party system (for instance the “red tribe/blue tribe” framework) is doomed to failure, since the reality is that most people are smart enough to know that both parties are trash.
also this neatly debunks the mythology of the reactionary working class (also a major plank in the “red tribe/blue tribe” framework)
Honestly, I think this really fails to examine how much time and energy being caught up with politics takes, especially for, like, single parents working full time for minimum wage, who already have so much on their plate to deal with.
When someone has mayyybbbeeee half an hour that’s truly free time to relax and unwind before doing it all over again, why would the devote it to politics? When they have more pressing issues already stressing them out–the light bill, the water bill, how they’re gonna get school clothes for their kids…
And honestly, I think the system is designed to encourage voting and politics in general to keep it feeling like a distant, faraway issue. Kinda like now study after study has found that the forty hour work week is not in any way the most productive, but is best for consumerism–people who have less time to cook and make things themselves are gonna buy pre-made.
Well also that, HOWEVER during the great wave of the labor movement (which got us the 40 hour week as opposed to the 60 hour plus week) people had even less time, as… well there weren’t limits placed on working hours, housework and transport took longer, a huge swath of working people were highly political and participated in mass political movements but only because they promised and brought improvements on bread and butter issues through direct action
Madeira Darling is a snarky mystic, devout Satanist, serious Marxist, laughing dominatrix, and writer from San Fransisco where they live with their boyfriend in a house full of altars to their various demons.
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Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 