Most people don't give a damn.
Only 10 per cent of respondents to the Samara survey had volunteered, donated to or joined a political party in the previous five years. Just 17 per cent said they had taken part in political discussions on social media such as Twitter or Facebook over the past year. The same percentage said they had written a letter to the editor about a political issue in the past 12 months.
Full, depressing report that our elected morons will be merrily jacking off to.
4 comments:
I have recently read George Lakoff's book, Don't think of the elephant, which gave me a bit of insight into those who are disengaged from the electoral process or vote against their own interests. The part I remember is that people will be more interested in voting and participating if they are reached through their values, which the HarperCons have done in spades!
And, I think, it is something the CCF did in Saskatchewan way back in the day. They engaged people on the spirit of co-operation, social justice and general well-being and got right into the grassroots. Unfortunately, many in the NDP here in SK, believe that the grassroots is the Party, and that just makes me wanna hurl.
That said, the federal wing of the Party sees the real grassroots -- you and me and the people we work with -- and works with us. I mean, Niki Ashton's work on M312 and women's issues in general has been fantastic from where I sit here on the Prairies.
Well, democratic efforts run a little ragged when people participate and vote based on merits of what is promised and then watch as elected officials merrily proceed to screw them over with secret votes and illegal procedures, vote fraud, draconian tyranny tagged onto omnibus bills, shutting down of vital evidence-based sources of information, calling the electorate terrorists, etc etc etc.
Canadians haven't reached the desperation yet of Egyptians and the emphasis is still on, well, that couldn't possibly happen here....
Those of us who do participate where we can, can be easily overwhelmed with donation fatigue as we get put on mailing lists of all the progressive orgs asking (with similar degrees of evidence-backed oh yeah, this is bad, very bad, projects).
Sounds like Samara is an org that is trying, as a good progressive org does, to get evidence-based information out that we are in trouble. Likely why 'our' government is working so hard to shut down as many sources of trustworthy evidence as possible.
Niles . . . and that may be why there was such an amazing display of dumb-fuck goon brutality during the G20 protests. Perfect place in terms of warning, without hurting, his base . . . and a perfect time in terms of "anticipatory retaliation" against an anticipated protest against his plans to blast the commons . . . Harper has brought hate to my political lexicon.
I've been perpetually cynical about our electorate and our or any party's inability to mobilize for change but I swear what I'm reading has only deepened my skepticism for change. If you're feeling down about our political reality, I suggest you avoid "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" by Robert Tressell like the plague. I'm sure it was written to instill anger and provoke change but it certainly is dejavu and depressing.
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