Quote:
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"If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible psychological reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on [election] day. By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote." -David Foster Wallace from Consider the Lobster p. 207
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I came across this quote while rereading Wallace's (RIP) piece for
Rolling Stone on John McCain written during the 2000 Republican primary. I thought it was possibly the most effective response to political apathy I've ever seen. Although it was written at one of the latest dates that John McCain could have justifiably been considered a maverick (his record since 2000 has been only sporadically independent), the essay has aged fairly well (it's been reprinted as a standalone book for the season).
Above the race and gender "firsts" this election presents us with it is more notably the first time in recent memory that neither candidate represents their respective party's previously established power structure. Democrat voters chose Obama over H. Clinton at least in part because of impatience with the continued impotence of the current Democratic Congress. McCain was selected over the more seemingly mainline candidates Huckabee or Romney due to Republican establishment's collapse under the weight of their own incompetence. So it seems that cynicism hasn't prevailed thus far in this election cycle.
Still, I've heard a fair share of "It doesn't matter"s and "nothing will change"s from people this year. How do you, the various TFP politicos, respond to political apathy and cynicism when you encounter it?