Only 82.5 million people voted in the 2010-midterm election. That is 82.5 million out of the approximate 220 million eligible voters (total population of 308 million in 2010). So about 37-42% voted for this new general make-up of our current congress. 63% did not vote and much less voted in the 2010-primary election, roughly 10%. Within the 37-42% and 10% the majority were republicans.
To put this into perspective I'm going to use two channels in mainstream media. FOX News may be nonsensical; however one thing they don't do is equate the two major parties, democrats and republicans as two sides of the same coin. The republican FOX News media anchors don't do that, no no no. MSNBC, with its republican president and its vast majority of anchors who are republican do quite regularly equate the two parties as being very much the same. Why anchors would be republican and then rant about both parties being the same is not rocket science. He or she's a republican and then when addressing a liberal audience, equates the two parties overtly and covertly so that the liberals feel like fools for having voted since the "parties are the same."
Whether learned through mainstream media, or through echoed slogans manufactured on MSNBC and PR firms these ideas make there way around whether you watch the channel or not. They encourage people not to vote, and even encourage criticism of others for voting or asking others to remember to vote. It's not a difficult trick, it's a form of operant conditioning. Two gal friends go to a store, gal A is choosing between two dresses. Gal B doesn't want her to buy the dress that's nicer than the one she herself has, then she'd be competition. So Gal B tells her that one or the other looks better on her and flip-flops between the dresses coming to a conclusion that both dresses are just about the same in the end. So Gal A wrestles with the two dresses and in the dress she once saw as beautiful she begins to find all its imperfections and puts them both down as she equates the dresses, with minor differences, and walks out of the store.
Further, people are more likely to vote every four years not two. Classically, growing up we're told that voting for president is every four years. It generally sticks that "voting is every four years" and that that's what really matters especially with media coverage (other than CSPAN and some online sites) overwhelmingly on the president and not on what's actually happening with the House of Representatives and Senate.
Further, people are more likely to vote every four years not two. Classically, growing up we're told that voting for president is every four years. It generally sticks that "voting is every four years" and that that's what really matters especially with media coverage (other than CSPAN and some online sites) overwhelmingly on the president and not on what's actually happening with the House of Representatives and Senate.
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