While we sift through the aftermath of the debt debacle, a new Pew Center study gives a pretty big hint as to how Republicans were able to get away with putting a gun to the country’s head. TPM:
A telephone poll by the Pew Research Center for People and Press found that Republicans and Tea Party-affiliated respondents both paid more attention to the debt negotiations and were more likely to take action to influence the outcome.
Some 66% of the two groups followed news on the issue closely versus only 34% of those who had different views or did not offer a political opinion. Nor were they passive observers: some 66% of Republicans and Tea Partiers followed the debt debate and 20% contacted an elected official during the standoff while only 5% of the rest did the same. This despite a direct appeal from President Obama to do exactly that.
As was the case in the midterm election, age was a crucial factor. Only 19% of 18-29 year-olds followed the story closely and 1% contacted an official versus 54% of those over 50 who followed the debate and 16% who contacted an official.
Stop. Rewind.
Two-thirds of people who identified themselves as Tea Party or as Republicans followed this story and 20% took action to contact their representatives and senators in Congress. Democrats? Well, Democrats apparently didn’t give a damn. Only one third even followed the debt ceiling story and only 5% did contact Congress. If you wonder why the Tea Party minority can control such a huge swath of Congress, it’s because the rest of us are apparently too cynical, too cool, or too depressed to care.
It’s 18-29-year-olds who are in the deepest financial hole right now. They are the ones coming out of college and trying to start a family with six figure college loan debt, trying to find jobs that involve not wearing paper hats or asking people how much foam they want on things, who are seeing their dreams crushed right now by the Tea Party right.
Republicans are trying to do everything they can to make it harder to get a mortgage, get a car loan, to get married to who you want to marry, to practice birth control, to have sex without consequences of carrying a child to full term, to get a job with solid pay and good benefits, to fight job discrimination based on sexual preference, race, or gender, and basically to live the American Dream. They are knocking out all the supports, all the help networks, all the safety nets that older generations had because the older generation has been convinced by the Republicans that they can’t afford it anymore, because it’s all going to “those people”. I got mine, screw you.
They’re the ones that stand to lose the most by starting out so far in the red in this economy that they’ll never see daylight and will end up as indentured servants. And the “professional left” is more than happy to assist Republicans in demoralizing the hell out of young voters. “You’re a sucker if you fell for hope and change.” “Obama is nothing but a corporate lapdog.” “You’re wasting your time supporting the Democrats, they’re just like the Republicans.” When you’ve grown up seeing Poppy Bush’s war for oil, Clinton being impeached and eight years of Dubya’s monstrous reign, you’d be too cynical to care…cynical enough to give up on Obama and let the GOP back into control after just two years. Politicians have always been scuzzbags.
But the second you throw away your right to participate in the American political system, it gets hijacked by those who remain until the bitter end…and in this case it’s the Tea Party and their enablers who want to profit from the chaos they cause. It should be the 18-29-year-olds lighting up the phones and tweeting their representatives and senators because they are the ones who are going to suffer the most. There’s a reason why the debt deal is backloaded to cause some real damage in the years down the road but not to the people on SS and Medicare right now.
Only 1% did. One lousy friggin percent. No wonder Congress thinks “We the people!” consists solely of elderly white angry conservatives. When you don’t give a damn politically, politicians really don’t give a damn about you. So instead of sniping at each other in the standard circular squad formation, let’s actually tell Congress what the hell we think about what’s going on. You can bitch and moan, or you can do something. Get involved with OFA. Contact your member of Congress. Tweet your member of Congress. Let them know you exist, you are a voting constituent, and that you have an opinion. (Be polite.)
But for the love of anything, don’t be that 99% that doesn’t give a damn under 30, or the 66% of Dems that don’t care.
Do something. Let them know.
(Cross-posted at ZVTS).
I’m going to repost my first long response, if noone minds (As opposed to my first “Fuck you A. Citizen you are part of the problem” comment).
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Cynicism and apathy are easy, really. Doing something is difficult. At the same time, though, I can’t be too surprised, and I do not think it is all cynicism and apathy.
Think of it: One of the main arguments for a voting period (as opposed to a single day) is the fact that often people cannot get the TIME to vote. Limiting voting time to those who either have the time or are willing to take a day off of work to do so is a classic vote denial tactic. Many people, particularly the young and struggling, can’t get the time or is unwilling to take the time off, ESPECIALLY if they’re poor: one vote doesn’t seem like much when you’re facing losing a day’s pay.
Further out, look at the tea party: the joke about them being the Hoveround Brigade comes from the fact that they’re generally older, retired (and thus have the time), sometimes fairly affluent (which would make taking the time easier), and white (which really is the topping for the whole deal, but I hardly expect an employer to be too unforgiving if a white person votes). All said and done, they have the time to vote and be heard.
If you’re young, poor, non-white–all fairly consistent Democratic voters–chances are, you’re struggling with your life, trying to get (or keep) it in some semblance of order, and trying not to starve or be thrown out onto the street. After working hard at some shit job because it’s the only job out there (I do love the meme about how low-wage workers are all lazy, it’s such flying bullshit), if not two, and managing a family if you have one, and this and that and all the crap you need to do just to function in society… can you blame them for not getting involved?
Having to put up with people who think you’re lazy and don’t deserve because you’re working a shit job that takes up most of your mental and physical energy so you have little to none available for improving your lot in life? Having to listen to people who insist that one is just like the other and they’ll all fuck you in the end so why bother? Having to listen to the constant arguments even putatively allied people have?
Fuck it, I’ve got more pressing shit to get to. (Rhetorically speaking, anyways.)
Politics is difficult and messy. So is life, particularly for the poor. At least one can step out of politics (although it still affects you, obviously). I think that apathy and cynicism is a part of it, but don’t count out just simply not having the time or energy for politics. Poverty, especially in the fashion displayed in the US, is all about making sure there is none.
As a person who is a member of and supports the Tea Party, let me ask you a question. When have we ever gotten our way? Did we get our way when it came to Obamacare? Did we get our way when it came to financial regulation that has ripped businesses in America asunder? Did we even get our way concerning the debt deal? Not really. The only time that the Tea Party ever got its way was during the November 2010 elections, and I’m sure that if you could you’d take that victory away from us as well. We have gotten nothing from those who control government, and this is we constantly call our representatives to let them know that they cannot get away with this. They must be held accountable.
Allow me to let you in on something that you can share with others if you’d like; we are not going anywhere. So go ahead and tell whatever lies you’d like to about us. How we’re “nothing but a bunch of terrorists holding a gun to the country’s head”. These things only serve to strengthen our resolve and bind us together. We are here to stay, and we will continue our fight against the leftist ideological statists until we can do it no longer. We aren’t going anywhere.
Daniel,
The solution to never getting what you want is to form the Tea Party as a real third party. Even run a presidential candidate. What’s your alternative, voting for Romney — The godfather of Obamacare? — The pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts?
The Republican party has to know that they have to EARN the tea party’s vote and that they can only do that by putting conservative principles over everything. A strong conservative third party is the ticket that will force them to do just that. Best of luck!