If people are ignorant of the issues and that stakes that they don't care if someone else determines their fate, then in my book maybe they aren't qualified to vote

We did it because someone who is sent to fight in a war should have some say in their elected representatives who send them to war

about the value of voting, the civic duty of voting, the importance of voting, there is no money put into advertising the vote, how to vote, where to vote, pride in voting, making voting easy and fun, there is not even work time off to vote.....there has to be a culture of voting, but the corporate media does not give a fuck about any of that.

Mandatory voting is the only answer now, the system is too fucked up to be fixed incrementally.

you actually ask them "why aren't you voting?". And instead of ripping apart their answer, you listen to it?

And the fact that we've been trying to get you to pay attention for decades is another.

But whom an I kidding? We've had weeks of people like you shouting instead of listening. We've been trying to get you to pay attention to what we are saying for 25 years. There's no way you'll listen now.

For myself, some of the responses I've gotten are:

* "Both parties are the same." <<< for the record, that's bullshit, and shows the person is at best ignorant.

* "They're all corrupt, so there's no point." <<< I don't think that's true, but let's say that I'm wrong. Even if they all ARE corrupt, whichever corrupt p.o.s. that is elected will be making decisions that affect actual people's lives, possibly including yours. If all the choices are corrupt, then pick the one that is most likely to make decisions that are better for you than what the other corrupt p.o.s. will do. It's really simple logic, actually.

* My boss won't let me off work long enough to work / I'm afraid if I try to vote before work then it will make me late and I might be fired // I was sick and didn't know how to vote absentee // I got called out of town unexpectedly and couldn't get an absentee ballot ... and variations thereof. <<< The only really good reasons I remember hearing from people who didn't vote; and this is the fault of the system, not the voter.

* "Election? There was an election?" <<< I've heard this one shockingly often. (Especially for primaries and municipal elections, which are arguably where a single voter has the most power and/or choice)

Nah, much better to yell at them about how hard you fought, back in the day. I'm sure that'll make them show up real soon now....sure, Democrats have been trying that tactic since 1988, but it's gonna work real soon now.

should I try to convince them on its importance?

Forget the candidates for a moment, there are ballot issues also. When I say not voting, I am not talking about someone going to the polls and not voting for a particular office of the ballot, I am talking about some people not even going to the polls period. Though I mentioned fighting for the 18 year old vote, it applies equally to other age groups also. I mentioned the 18 year vote because that was the most recent in my memory that were given the right to vote. The 19th ammendment gave women the right to vote and I believe the 17th amendment gave African Americans the right to vote as a "whole person".

And you think the kids owe you blind loyalty because you once did something....nevermind the intervening decades.

I agree with your prescribed response.

You're trying to convince them that there is a point.

For the last 25 years, you've given Younger GenX and Millennials a choice: Send the country to hell, or send the country to hell slightly slower while pretending to care.

So what's the point?
I vote R: I get massive college debt, a terrible job market, zero job stability, massive outsourcing, tax cuts that don't help me, and general corporatism over people.

I vote D: I get massive college debt, a terrible job market, zero job stability, massive outsourcing, tax cuts that don't help me, and general corporatism over people. And occasionally someone pretends to feel bad about it.

That's not going to result in large turnout.

So why do Democrats not want Vote By Mail in Every state? They have been fighting it for years.

Efforts need to be made to help people make sure they can vote even with the restrictions. Help people get to voting registration centers, solicit donations to help people afford the cost of picture IDs, etc...

It looks like ID laws may start being upheld by the courts. Seems better to be prepared for these laws to be in effect and take steps to help people be able to vote instead of hoping these laws will be overturned in the future.

in this particular election in PA the incentive to vote was very small. Wolf had a huge majority going in, so neither side had a major incentive to GOTV for Governor. And the local districts were already sewn up for the R's, so neither side had a huge incentive for GOTV. In order to turn this around you would have had to have a crisis-level turnout in all sorts of small areas, which just isn't likely to happen where there is almost no media coverage. This wouldn't require just an improved effort to get out the vote, it would require a huge number of people in all sorts of voting districts to understand simultaneously that we are in a dire crisis and we need to have everybody voting. There simply is not the level of political awareness to get anywhere near this level of participation, at least not in Pennsylvania.

And, in my area for example, the Democrats ran a candidate for US Congress who had already been defeated in the past two elections for the same office, who has never held any level of political or elected office, and who does not actually live in the district. I have no doubt he is an excellent human being and citizen, but he has never been a viable candidate. He was the chosen candidate because there was no Democrat with any stronger political track record than that in the area.

Districts and figure what the fuck do they and someone a fucking hundred miles away have in common to vote for in a district already predetermine by a fucking cheating map?

And, I will note, that while some make some lip service to it, the democrats in office know their job hinges on those districts, too.

out of 70,000 votes cast.

A relatively small increase in turnout percentage among Dems would have won this race.

Trying to generalize about PA, I definitely did not cover every detail. That particular race was surely one that could have been won by getting out the vote. In the big picture in PA, most of those races are not close. To bring about broad change it will be necessary for some tsunami to occur to overcome gerrymandering and the lack of political awareness on a large and crisis-level scale. Having spent quite a lot of time in local politics in PA, I don't see that happening, but I do know I'm just getting old and tired. Hope your district goes better next time, MH1.

Allowing universal voting by mail tops the list of things that need implemented in PA.
States that have implemented that like Oregon and most recently Colorado have significantly better participation.

As for the legislature their now ousted leaders promised no action after election which is why they were deposed by the hard right teabaggers so I would expect they would try this stunt. Thing is there are still enough moderate Republicans in the Eastern part of the state, including some of the ousted leadership, who will work with Governor Wolf to block this garbage and enact his agenda. Since this will enrage the neoConfederates even further I anticipate some party switching among their ranks before all is said and done as they know these people are rabid ideologues more interested in being Koch Brothers puppets than doing what's good for the people of Pennsylvania.