After all, we're facing much more important issues: a national recession; two wars; global warming; state and federal deficits; and whether 3-D TV's are going to catch on.
Judging from voter turnout, the overwhelming majority of L.A.'s voters just don't give a damn. They care about presidential elections, but you never need to wait in line to vote for City Council.
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| Total number of registered voters vs. number of votes cast in selected elections. |
Well, frankly, why should L.A. voters care?
Why should they use their precious time even to learn about local issues and politicians, much less get involved in such trifling matters?
You tell me.
Seriously: use the comments feature, below.
Tell me -- and the other nine people who visit this outstanding website -- what you would say to someone to make them start paying attention to local politics. Give us, in short, your succinct sales pitch to pique the interest of the million-plus people who skip local elections.
Let me suggest a few possible themes to explore with our fellow citizens who ignore local politics:
- Your job is in L.A. Do you know how many businesses left L.A. last year? Did you know the unemployment rate for L.A. is much higher than the national average, the state average, and even the average of surrounding cities?
- Your biggest investment -- your home -- is in L.A. Do you think City Hall is pushing the value of your property up, or down? You really can't say, can you?
- Wouldn't you like to be able to send your kids to a public school?
- City Hall spends hundreds of millions of dollars per year on "community redevelopment;" does your neighborhood look like it got even $1,000 worth?
- Hey, you think people like you in Detroit felt the same way? You do know about Detroit, right?
- Did you know the population of the City of L.A. is bigger than the population of 24 states? Did you know City Hall's annual budget is over $6 billion?
You'll come up with something much better, I'm sure. The goal is to get good people to stop skipping local elections, and throw their support behind L.A. Clean Sweep and its candidates, so we can make this city a great place to live and work.
I wish I could come up with something better. I tried talking to the people in my office when I was collecting signatures to recall Villar. I could not believe the sheer ignorance of these people. Not only ignorance, but a complete lack of interest. Clueless. They live in the city, pay taxes, yet could care less about what's going on. It's no wonder we have nothing but criminals in office.
ReplyDeleteKaren F.
I wish people did care more and vote. Things can change if people would just a bit of time away from the everyday routine. A fellow student and I were able to have a teacher removed from teaching a particular course at our local junior college. We kept our heads and presented only facts and were able to get something done.
ReplyDeletePerhaps now with things like Facebook, info can get to citizens more quickly and without the filtering by partisan newspapers. Look at Bell - betcha that other cities will now be pressured to open their books because of the exposure that city received. Here's to hoping!
I had the voter appathy bug until prop 187 was rolled around. Then I said there is something I could sink my teeth into. Well when the Gov decided not to challenge the judges constitutionality ruling and 187 was 187'd that apathy came back. It did not stop me from voting but the recurrent climate of votes don't meen sh!t, well, it's comming back.
ReplyDeleteIf the LA public were shown, by the numbers, that they're paying the same amount in taxes and getting increasingly less services, they just might pay attention. They would also need to be shown the "drunken sailor" spending habits of their City Council and add up all the money that's being wasted or not collected. They just might start to wake up.
ReplyDeleteImagine this, A 30 second video with the following scenario:
[A top view of a conference table in a private room, looking straight down at only the tops of their heads]. 15 people discussing ways of deflecting blame for their incompetency or neglect of a mismanaged budget.
One says in a loud voice: Look, we can always blame the economy, everyone buys into that, right?
Another says; Let's just say the revenue is down and come up with some figures. The public always buys that....I mean, they don't care enough to check on it, right?
Yet another voice is heard at the table speaking confidently: We can pretty much say whatever we want. The voters just don't care anymore anyway. It's been working for us so far, am I right, or what?
A voice over the phone speaker: "And if it ain't broke, why fix it?"
[All the people at the conference table erupt in smiles and laughter.]
[Narrator's voice as camera pans and focus's on American flag in the room]: Enough is enough..it's time to break the cycle...do it for your children....fix it....vote.