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First election I voted in was ‘08. Seeing Obama win helped establish a confidence in political engagement. When I hear younger folks say they’re done voting after their candidate lost in ‘16/18 I’m reminded how voter suppression impacting one election shapes long-term engagement.
Like, how do you convince a younger sibling that voting is something worthwhile when they see Gillum lose to DeSantis in Florida or Stacey Abrams lose to Brian Kemp? How do you communicate the larger forces at play and how they’re designed to discourage people from voting?
How do you quantify the cumulative, long-term impact of voter suppression for new generations of voters who’s first experience with voting is experiencing a rigged system where their votes are discouraged and suppressed at every turn, resulting in the worst candidates winning?
It’s not that people are “sore losers” or just want to participate if their candidate wins. It’s the experience of a rigged system, one where the most vile people prevail, that turns so many people off to the idea of participating again.
And I guess that’s the long-game Republicans are playing. Voter supression is a long-term, compounding strategy eroding democratic participation over time and over generations.
