Scott Perez hit the nail on the head in his column, “Both parties have failed ‘We the People,’” (Herald, Mar. 5). The current state of our political affairs is an embarrassment, and the cloak of shame is covering both our major parties. The fawning obedience to this president by Republicans is impossible to justify, and the wimpish efforts of the Democrats to mount an effective resistance to the administration’s actions dismantling our federal government is befuddling.
Perez outlines how these parties have rigged the system to not allow for the rise of other parties to challenge them nationally. Some robust competition could be healthy for our country, though it would be unwise to develop nine or 10 major parties, which doomed Germany in the early 1930s. With that kind of diversity, it would be difficult to accomplish the large tasks required of our national government.
Significantly, the greatest failure of “We the People” has been the failure of American citizens to actually participate in our system. It is rare that even 60% of eligible voters in our nation take time to vote in presidential elections, let alone take time to read, research and discuss the issues, and especially learn from our past.
Since the enactment of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted voting rights to women, the largest percentage of voter participation before 2020 was 63.3% in 1952, Eisenhower’s first term. Since then, we have seen an overall decline in the number of eligible, adult citizens who actually vote, usually hovering in the mid 50 percentile. In 2020, we had the highest voter eligible turnout, a measure of those eligible vs. registered to vote, in the past century at 65.3%.
The end result of this indifference, apathy and resignation that it “just doesn’t matter” is a lack of participation and the fact that no matter which candidate wins the presidency, the victor is chosen by a minority of the citizens of our country. In other words, rule by minority.
When Reagan won reelection in 1984, he garnered a landslide in the Electoral College, defeating Walter Mondale 525-13. Reagan won over 54 million votes. But at that time there were over 167 million eligible voters in the United States, which means that 32% of eligible voters selected our president. Rule by minority, again. The same holds true for Biden’s victory in 2020. He captured over 81 million votes, but this was only 33% of the eligible voters of our nation. Rule by minority.
In 2024, 85.9 million eligible voters did not vote in the general election, eclipsing the 76.8 million who voted for Donald Trump and 74.3 million who voted for Kamala Harris. Trump won with 31.8% of eligible voters. Once again, rule by minority. And, in the April 1 Durango City Council election, only 34% of registered voters turned out, the same as in 2023 (Herald, Apr. 6).
As Perez says, “The U.S. ranks consistently in the low 30s in turnout of the 50 democracies.” He also clearly calls for wise reform, such as term limits and getting unlimited money out of politics. The 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, eliminating the prohibition of corporate donations to campaigns, led directly to the $270 million contribution by Elon Musk and helped get Trump elected. The decision resulted in money wielding an outsized influence in elections, political decision-making and who benefits.
Much of the apathy, alienation, sense that “voting doesn’t matter or affect me,” can be attributed to a lot of factors, including a general lack of understanding of how government works and even what is in the Constitution.
An antidote? As a nation, we ought to consider placing a greater focus on our education system, on studying civics, history and government, and require that these subjects be included nationally in standardized testing and graduation requirements, as Colorado does.
We might consider making voting compulsory, as in Australia. That is, if we can maintain our freedom through this current, massive assault on democracy, for our citizens are certainly failing “We the people” at the ballot box.
Gene Orr, M.Ed., is a retired educator with 43 years of experience teaching social studies and history in middle school, high school and college in Durango. He lives in Kline.
