Politics as Eh

Election season is in full swing. The Iowa caucus has come and gone with Hilary Clinton winning the Democratic vote and Ted Cruz winning the Republican vote. New Hampshire is next. After New Hampshire, the next two Republican caucuses are South Carolina and Nevada. The next Democratic caucuses reverse the order with Nevada followed by South Carolina. The remaining states hold caucuses April through June.

There was a time when election season was interesting and electrifying. Everywhere you went, people were discussing the candidates. Now election season barely raises a blip on the attention meter. People are more interested in the next Ironman/Captain America/Avenger movie or what the Kardashian are doing or the next Air Jordan. Even older folks have forsaken political discourse in favor of conversations about retirement, 401K’s and body ailments.

Professor of Government at American University Jennifer Lawless’ new book, Running from Office: Why Young Americans are Turned Off to Politics, argues that the current political system discourages young people from running for office. Whether or not you agree, it certainly seems to be a plausible explanation as to why we are asked to choose between the lesser of two evils when it comes to candidates instead of having real choices for elected officials. Now only the rich or those who have access to serious money run for president. Candidates spend lots of time courting rich donors while giving the average voter short shrift. Voters are given sound bites on issues while candidates spend evenings in hotel dining rooms eating $500 a plate chicken while turning over our country to corporate CEO’s who think nothing of the rest of us.

The ill-fated Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Committee opened the floodgates and changed politics in the United States. Instead of making political funding more transparent, the Supreme Court insulted the public by maintaining that companies are protected by the First Amendment and could spend as much unlimited amounts of money on political activities. The court took the political process away from the voters and placed it squarely in the hands of corporate America.

This may or may not be the reason why there seems to be such apathy this election season. It could also be the candidates that are running for public office. For the first time in years, I find myself in the unenviable position of not liking any presidential candidate. More surprisingly, I’m unaware of candidates running for local offices which is a first for me. I can’t seem to work up interest let alone fervor about any candidate for any office and I’m not alone. Most people in Chicago have an inkling when the election will be held but it seems no one has a clue when our primary is going to be held. What’s worse is that no one seems to care. It would seem that as far as politics goes, our get up and go has got up and went.