As election season comes and goes, you may see the familiar discourse happening around you. Families and friends arguing over social media, canvassers knocking on your door and all of these people promoting the politician they think is best for the job. While it can get annoying and tiresome, at least those people are using their voices and power to promote participation in society and politics. With every group of political activists, there is a group of people who become uncomfortable when faced with a political decision, especially seeing as things seem more divided than ever. When asked about their views, they laugh nervously and say something along the lines of, “I don’t like to talk politics.”
While many people who want to avoid political discourse don’t mean any harm, the fact of the matter is, if you’re actively choosing to ignore politics, you are actively choosing to ignore people in need. A society is only as strong as its most vulnerable member; those without healthcare, housing and adequate income to provide for themselves and their families need people to have opinions and vote for officials who hold those same values. As individuals, the only way we can generate change is through voting.
Right now, our country faces many issues. People are dying because they cannot afford the medical treatment they need without going into debt, individuals who belong to minority groups may be facing daily discrimination, young people may need to pay thousands of dollars on education just to get a decent job; all of these issues are happening in real-time and whole groups of people are simply ignoring them, and in turn, not generating change.
Looking back at history, everyone likes to think that they would have been an agent of change. Everyone likes to think that they would have stood up in the face of injustice. However, when the time actually comes and real social issues emerge, many of those same people simply turn their heads the other way.
People who are able to avoid discussing or even thinking about politics are only able to do so because of the privilege they hold. The problems affecting part of the population, no matter how dire, may not be affecting them. However, just because an issue isn’t affecting you doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting someone you know or someone you care about.
Humans should be looking out for each other and keeping in mind those in our communities who may be struggling. If you are not staying up to date and at least doing minor participation in local and nationwide politics, you are not doing your part to fight for those who face injustice. While it doesn’t mean that you should be arguing on every Twitter thread online or sharing obnoxious and false political propaganda on Facebook, the least you can do is educate yourself thoroughly and vote accordingly. It’s true that a single person cannot always change the world, but if every person who thought that their singular vote actually formed an opinion voted, people could actually make real change.
