Voters call foul on political games
Published December 9, 2013
by Brent Laurenz, NC Center for Voter Education, published in Fayetteville Observer, December 8, 2913.
An Elon Poll released in late November revealed what many voters have already long known - people are fed up with politicians.
Every major elected official polled by Elon had negative approval ratings from the voters of North Carolina. And that crosses party lines, too. From Democrats Barack Obama and Kay Hagan to Republicans Pat McCrory and Richard Burr, voters are not happy with the people in power.
There doesn't appear to be any single explanation for voters' dissatisfaction with their elected officials, especially since that dissatisfaction is bipartisan. Whether it's the Republicans in charge in North Carolina or the Democratic president, voters seem frustrated and tired of the same old political games.
Too often, all voters see are politicians putting their political party or own ambition ahead of the best interests of the people, and when that happens, it's no wonder citizens lose faith in the system and grow frustrated with government.
It also might explain why the fastest growing party affiliation in North Carolina is no party at all. More and more voters are choosing to register as unaffiliated these days rather than as Democrats or Republicans, possibly because they are tired of both parties putting politics before the people's interests.
The partisan gridlock in Washington is the strongest example of what frustrates voters. The Elon poll found that approval ratings for Congress are at a shockingly low 8.2 percent. That is as clear a sign as any that something is wrong in the nation's capital. While state government in Raleigh fares a little better, the General Assembly is still faced with approval ratings around 32 percent.
I think that regardless of party affiliation, at the end of the day, the average voter simply wants government to work. But they look at the government shutdown, the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act and many other examples, and they see dysfunction. They see partisan bickering and political grandstanding and no room for compromise, so we shouldn't be surprised that so many voters are fed up with politics and see no room for themselves in the process.
Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to ease voters' frustrations.
Taking politics out of redistricting and reducing the influence of money in politics would help, but it's clear that we need systemic changes to our political system to win back the confidence of voters and, hopefully, change the mindset of politicians as well.
Of course, the reasons voters are frustrated with politics are usually the same reasons that reform is so difficult. Politicians are either ensconced in safe districts where the only real threat is a primary challenge, or they are forced to spend most of their time fundraising instead of talking to voters. Either way, it's the voters who suffer most.
So as an eventful 2013 draws to a close, hopefully politicians in Washington and Raleigh will take heed of these dismal approval ratings and pay more attention to the voters in 2014. This may be wishful thinking during the holidays, but hopefully not.
Voters are the centerpiece of our democracy, and our government functions best when citizens are actively engaged in the process, not sitting frustrated on the sidelines.
December 9, 2013 at 9:08 am
TP Wohlford says:
Here's a wild and crazy thought... Just don't expect gov't to take care of us, from cradle to grave!
Then, there won't be an expectation that government can, and must, fix every woe of humanity! And it won't be spending so much money, which will mean that elections won't be so costly!
Just a wild thought.
December 9, 2013 at 9:22 am
Norm Kelly says:
What will also help is some honest reporting by the media. You know, those people who have the responsibility to REPORT the news. This is not a group of people who are supposed to opine about the news. Unless of course it's an opinion piece. But the news should be news. Hannity is obviously an opinion show. But we also get real news with him. I know, it's only 1 example. But look at the opposite side of the media. There's CNN and NBC. Very little news. From a supposed news organization. Most of what comes out of CNN & NBC is opinion with extremely little effort to disguise it as news.
And when that opinion is so obviously and grossly one-sided, it becomes propaganda. The media is not supposed to be a shill for the political elite.
Take the N&D for instance. How often have they endorsed a Republican for office? How often have they chosen to endorse no candidate when they find it difficult to endorse the Democrat for the office? I know the endorsements are an editorial board function and not a news organization function. But since this part of the process is so obviously, in-your-face biased, the people who work for them know the bias and write in that direction for their news stories in order to a:) please management and b:) keep their job. Stop feeding me your opinion in the news stories. Start feeding me the news, unfiltered, and let me make my own decision about my thoughts on the topic. Take the government shutdown as an example. Major news outlets, and the N&D, reported continuously that the Republicans in the House were responsible for this act, in order to force a decision about socialized medicine on the Demons. Except careful review of the facts show that it was only the Demons who were intent on shutting down the government. Review of the facts, even a loose review, will show that the Demons were dead-set against ANY negotiation on either Obamacare or deficit spending. But the only people who knew about either of these facts are the ones who did their own research, and used Fox News as one of their sources.
So, I mostly agree with this poster about how people react to politicians at every level. But if we get real news, real information based on facts and not opinion, people will start to believe again that WE have the power to change it. Encourage us instead of denigrating us.
