As a Democrat this article is scaring the crap out of me

@Ynotisay Do you not see Trump as a threat to democracy? And the Republican Party, which is primarily benefiting from the demographic shifts described in the linked article, is focused on showing Americans that government can’t work. Or at least the extremist wing of the Republican Party, which is where the power lies, is focused on that.

@Theyitis I absolutely see him, and those like him and their supporters, as being threats to Democracy. But there's more that don't subscribe to their vision of this country or even life in general.
If we could eliminate the mind blowing apathy when it comes to voting, which is roughly 40-50 percent of the population, this wouldn't even be on the table.
So I don't believe in the "non-white working class" theory this author mentioned. And that's because I looked in to him. I mean, his role is in the sidebar. That should say it all. This is nothing but an attempt to manipulate. And drive attention to his company. So of course they're leaning in to why government can't work. Even though Republican leaders are "the government." It's because they're not in it to serve Democracy. Or all citizens.

@Ynotisay It’s not necessarily apathy, it’s also our crappy election rules and that they put up so many hurdles to vote that it’s hardly worth it for a lot of people. Think about it, in a winner-take-all system like ours what are the chances that your one vote will decide the outcome of the election? Except maybe for local elections in podunk towns you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery! And what do you have to sacrifice to cast your ballot? Well, some people have to obtain ID’s, and that can be a real hassle if you don’t already have one. Election Day’s not a holiday, so you probably have to either sacrifice your lunch break or take off work, you have to get transportation to the polling place, if you’re in a big city you might have to stand in line for hours…there’s probably even more inconveniences that I’m not thinking of right now. Also, in presidential elections the votes cast by demographic groups most likely to support Trump or someone like him tend to be worth more than most people’s, thanks to the electoral college. [quote]I mean, his role is in the sidebar. That should say it all. This is nothing but an attempt to manipulate. And drive attention to his company.[/quote] Ad hominem attacks. Just because he’s predicting good things for the party he supports doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s wrong. He’s provided evidence to support his theory, and, while he put all this evidence together in a way that has startled me, it’s not the first time I had seen most of these observations in print.

@Theyitis Sorry. The "ad hominem" thing doesn't fly with me. It's a phrase thrown out because it sounds "smart" but most don't know what it means. What I was doing was considering the source of an Opinion article. Not editorial. Opinion. Big, big difference. So...no. I looked in to him beyond the sidebar because that stuff matters to me. I also know the industry, My take was accurate. People lock in to what they want to believe. And they don't question. Those people are targets. And this guy has written books on this topic. This type of article is meant to sell books and raise his profile. There's money in public speaking. That's how it [i]really[/i] works. Full stop.

And as far as voting, we do mail in ballots here. They come to your home. It's free. And a lot of states don't require photo ID. Some do, mostly Republican, and the reasoning is obvious. And it needs to change. But maybe the 50-60 percent who don't vote need to step up on their own and do what it takes. Because it matters. Most European countries have around 70-75 percent voter turnout. Why can't we? I do agree it should be a national holiday but I imagine the uptick would be minimal. Because we're Americans. As a nation we're generally lazy, entitled, live to whine and blame yet we don't do anything about it. That's how we roll and our government reflects that.

@Ynotisay Okay, fine, he’s writing to sell books and raise his profile. Still doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

Why would they want to step up and do what it takes to vote? As I pointed out previously, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do of casting the deciding ballot in almost any election, therefore your vote most likely won’t matter. Also, European countries mostly don’t have winner-take-all election systems. It’s usually a deal where each party gets a number of seats proportional to its share of the vote, so every vote really matters.

@Theyitis [i]"Therefore your vote most likely won’t matter."[/i]
EVERY vote matters. That's the whole point. And a non-vote can carry just as much weight as a vote. Sometimes a vote is against something.
And you do know that someone with fewer popular votes can still win a federal election, right? How do you think Bush came in to office?
Here's what I think it's about. Voting is selfless. It's about considering the well-being of the collective. Some don't have that gene. Some see the world through their own eyes only. Those are largely the people who don't vote. Or jack themselves with third/fourth/fifth party vote. It's all about them. That's not my lane.
So don't vote if you don't want. That's your call. But my take is that those who don't vote have lost all rights to whine about....whatever. I personally find that disgusting. Others, clearly, don't.

@Ynotisay Of course I know that someone with fewer popular votes can win a [i]presidential [/i]election, that makes even [i]more[/i] votes not matter. I’m a Democrat living in the middle of Missouri. What do you suppose the chances are next year of my state giving its ten electoral votes to someone not named Donald J. Trump? In fact, we pretty much know which way each state is going to vote next year except maybe Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, so unless you live in one of those seven states your vote for president most likely doesn’t matter. I can see why you think it’s selfish for people not to vote, and I kind of share that sentiment; however, I also recognize that our elections rules are generally set up to make casting a ballot a particular burden for people who work for a living, with vanishingly tiny chance of any reward for doing so. That shows our government disrespecting its people.