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Florida is down so bad | Florida's Troubles Continue to Mount
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this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Politics
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This is just an extended rationalization for apathy. I'm sorry to say, but government is boring. Politicians are boring. An exciting politician is probably trying to sell you a line of unrealistic, unachievable bullshit, and in the system the US has, by the time it gets down to the general election, your choices are Donkey, Elephant, and several flavors of Don't Care. You can have more excitement and a greater sense of choice in the primaries, but voting twice in a year is too much work for even many 'political' people.
If positive messaging got people to the polls, I guarantee you would see positive campaigning: even 10% of the non-voters would be enough to swing any competitive race.
That's absurd. Political apathy doesn't just come out of nowhere. Nearly everyone who doesn't vote will tell you it's because both of their realistic options are out to fuck them, and in most locales they're right. Give them something to hang onto, have a candidate that offers them literally anything other than not being the other guy or not actively making things worse, and a whole lot more will bite. You might think they're wrong for having that apathy, but to be completely honest what you think about them doesn't matter. What matters is getting people moving.
The reason they don't campaign like that is obvious: the things the people want are not what the ruling class will allow. It's foolish to think that politicians are simply optimizing for what gives them the best chance of winning. Those sorts of considerations only happen within the bounds of what their backers allow.