We had a gathering last weekend at my home where many of my children's "30ish" year old friends were in attendance. I sat down at a table where about 6 of them were discussing politics. The short of it is, they are good people, but they know very little. They are so busy with their lives and young families and trying to earn enough money to just survive they don't have much exposure to any news about our government. They think it just runs. I don't think they all vote or that they believe their vote is very important. Nobody at the table had ever heard of gerrymandering. When I explained it to them, and the recent SCOTUS decision, some mouths dropped open in disbelief that our democracy has been attacked in such a way. So I went on to explain to eager ears about other critical SCOTUS decisions that made corporations "people" and money "speech" with respect to our Constitution, and we also went into ALEC a little bit.
Before our discussion it was clear that none of them had ever heard of any of this! I don't know how this new information will factor into their future voting decisions but they have something new and real to consider when they do vote. I think people in general just don't understand how their democracy is being pulled out from under them like a rug. I think we all have a responsibility to do a lot better job of getting the word out however we can, whenever we can.
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