Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
“I don’t do politics,” he said.
I was sitting at a table in Jefferson Park with some friends collecting signatures for a ballot initiative. He stopped by to ask what we were doing, and when I explained the initiative to him, he said, “That sounds like a good idea.” When my friend asked whether he was registered to vote, he said “No.”
I asked him why, and he responded with that phrase I’ve heard so many times in my life:
“I don’t do politics.”
Then he added, “My vote doesn’t matter, anyway.”
And then he walked away.
In February of this year, Pasco’s school levy failed by just 59 votes in an election with only 24% voter turnout. In Washington State, local school district operating levies are essential to support student programs. The levy that failed was a replacement, meaning it would not impose new property taxes. The loss of those funds also means the state matching funds will be forfeited.
Voter apathy was the primary reason for the failed levy. As the Tri-City Herald reported, two-thirds of the teachers and staff that live in the district and depend on that levy did not vote. Assuming a majority of those would have voted yes, that would have been more than enough to pass the levy — the levy that directly affects the livelihoods of those teachers and staff members who didn’t bother to vote.
How many of those non-voters said, “I don’t do politics”?
Politics isn’t just Republicans and Democrats arguing with each other. Politics isn’t just uncomfortable conversations at Thanksgiving dinner, yard signs, or hateful television ads during election season. Politics is how “we the people” collectively agree on what is best for us as a community and as a nation.
Avoiding politics abdicates your voice in making our community better for all of us. By avoiding politics, you are letting someone else speak for you and allowing them to make decisions that impact you directly.
And here’s the part that gets uncomfortable — not ‘doing politics’ is privilege.
When you claim that you don’t do politics, when you say that you don’t like the system but you can live with it, when you believe that your vote doesn’t make a difference but you’ll be okay anyway, you are speaking from a position of extreme privilege.
Ask our transgender neighbors in Idaho who can no longer use a public restroom without risking a felony conviction and five years in jail whether politics affects them.
Ask our Black and Brown neighbors who are being targeted by ICE, including those who are citizens and legal residents, whether politics affects them.
Ask your neighbors who can’t afford a place to live, or who lack affordable health care, or who struggle to feed their family even though they are working three jobs, whether politics affects them.
Ask yourself whether you are happy with the status quo. Do you complain about something happening in our city to your friends and family, venting your frustration on social media, and then claim that you don’t do politics? Are you concerned about traffic and safety in our community, but don’t let your city council know how you feel? Have you ever attended a city council or school board meeting?
Do you really think politics doesn’t affect you?
I’m not a politician. I’m not a political party leader. And I certainly don’t agree with the major political parties on everything.
But I do politics because I’m a citizen and I live in a community that I love. I want my government to work for all the people, to make my community, my country, and the world a better place for everyone.
Someone asked me recently if I was hoping for a blue wave in the mid-term elections. The implication of that question is that electing Democrats will solve all our problems.
I answered that, yes, I am hoping that the mid-term elections will result in a Congress that actually uses its power as a check on the presidency as the Constitution intends.
But we need so much more than just the same old Democratic Party. We need to rid ourselves of money in politics. We need young, fresh ideas that ensure our government works for the people, not the corporations. We need universal health care. We need to restore fair taxation on the wealthy. We need to break up the tech monopolies with solid anti-trust action. We need to rein in spending on the military industrial complex. We need to restore and enact better civil rights legislation. We need to completely overhaul the prison industrial complex. We need a complete overhaul of immigration. We need to invest in clean energy and eviscerate the extractive petrochemical industry. We need to fully fund public education through college. We need to repair our infrastructure. We need to feed the poor and provide a safety net for the unhoused.
We need to take care of each other.
How could any of that be possible?
Politics.
We have spent four trillion dollars on wars that failed to achieve their goals. In the last forty years, the middle class has been hollowed out as wealth has moved significantly to the top one percent.
Imagine how much better it could be if politics was about working for the people instead of working for corporations and the wealthy.
We can do so much better.
But change will never happen if we don’t do politics.
Ted Miller grew up around the world but now lives in Richland with his wife. He’s a runner, actor, singer, nuclear engineer, and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Ted believes that if more people worked toward love and understanding instead of giving in to fear and divisiveness, the world would be a better place.
