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What Is The Soul Of America?
Last edited Mon Aug 24, 2020, 08:03 AM - Edit history (3)
What Is The Soul Of America?1. Voting numbers matter.
Total population of US = 327.2 million (2018) per Census
Total persons below voting age = 74,200,000 per Census
Total adult population of US today = 253,000,000 (18 yrs +)
Total voting age population 2016 = 249,485,228 age 18+ (Federal Register)
Total undocumented immigrants = 10,000,000 est’d by Pew
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Total actual voting age population minus undocumented immigrants, under age 18 = 239,485,228
Total registered to vote 2016 = 214,109,360 = 89% of voting age population
Total unregistered to vote in 2016 = 25,375,868 est. = 11% of voting age pop.
Trump 2016 vote = 62,984,828
Clinton 2016 vote = 65,853,514
Total Registereds who voted in 2016 = 128,838,342 = 60% of total registereds
Total Registereds who did NOT vote in 2016 = 85,271,018 = 40% of total registereds
Total who COULD HAVE REGISTERED WHO DID NOT VOTE + TOTAL REGISTERED WHO DID NOT VOTE IN 2016 = 111,217,658 = 46% OF VOTING AGE POPULATION WHO COULD HAVE VOTED IN 2016
= U.S. NONVOTERS.
Voters in 2016 who actively engaged democracy maintenance = 39% of America, overall.
Voters who COULD always actively engage in democracy maintenance = 73% of America, overall.
No charts match the above numbers, which are pretty accurate, give or take six figures. The percentages and sources are solid regardless of slight total variations.
2. Nonvoters matter.
I wish there were an accurate demographic breakdown of the unregistered voting age population.
One good source I've seen for explaining nonvoters is this year's Knight Foundation report. I only skimmed, not examined the meat of the report (pp 9-21) in detail yet.
https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-100-Million-Project_KF_Report_2020.pdf
The study reveals that persistent non-voters are by no means a monolithic group, but as varied as American society itself.
There is not a one-size-fits-all description of the non-voting population, nor is there a single, unifying explanation for their lack of participation.
They can be found across the political spectrum, at every level of education and income, and from every walk of life.
There were, however, several themes that emerged from the study:
-- Many non-voters suffer from a lack of faith in the election system and have serious doubts about the impact of their own votes: Thirty-eight percent of non-voters are not confident that elections represent the will of the people, and non-voters are more likely to say that this is because the system is rigged.
-- Non-voters are less likely to believe votes are counted fully and accurately, or to say that decisions made by the president or others in Washington have a strong impact on their lives.
-- Non-voters engaged less with news and are left feeling underinformed: Non-voters are twice as likely as active voters to passively encounter news versus actively seek it out, and to say they do not feel they have enough information about candidates and issues to decide how to vote.
Their media diets involve less news and more entertainment as compared to active voters.
Voter numbers give us a clearer map of activity and passivity when as Americans do or don't maintain democracy (or help us control COVID).
And these numbers perhaps show a map of how the adult population identifies, or doesn't, with the "united" part of the United States.
It's the nonvoting numbers that have bothered me. How do their numbers reveal how the rest of U.S. adults live with, or think about, "events" that precede the 2020 General Election, or what comes after, the way we voters do.
So the Knight Foundation report is worth considering.
Precision without accuracy (the forest for the trees problem) is a forever problem of science, and mapping reality.
And mapping a democratic society.
Does the numbers map of Americans humans in and out of the "united" part of the U.S., maybe show us who make up the soul of America?
Is it only they who can help us see that soul more accurately? Would knowing more about nonvoters matter as we 'see' how they see themselves in the U.S., and whether or not they want to be "saved"?
How do they compare to traditional voters?
Do they even care about the idea of "soul" or "saving," or America as advertised?
Four out of ten people we meet appear not to be of any politically interested in this nation.
Do we meet them? Work with them? Know them?
Is their freedom the price of our voting?
I don't know and probably never knew.
3. What is the soul of America?
I bring numbers and questions up because an accurate perspective matters. Or maybe an emotional map matters.
Is non-participation part of freedom, or part of the soul of America, or part of the cost of freedom?
Is non-participation irresponsible?
Is non-participation just a random difference in values? a random difference in human capacity?
Is freedom, as many say, not valued unless it's hard to get?
Does this have anything to do with why the founders did not constitutionally protect the vote to all?
I ask because during the next 72 days, we could care enough to think about these things, since it's not as if the issue of voting and nonvoters hasn't come up. It has.
It seems to me that if America's soul is the people in it, that becomes way more important to us than "America is an idea."
And so mapping voters and nonvoters maps the "soul" of America.
Which helps Americans to know who, not what, we're fighting for, not just against.
23 replies
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I have to try to answer some of the questions myself. But I love to hear how others think here, first, so whenever.
I just thought the weekend might be a better time to bring it up.
Thank you for the link. Voter suppression is justified by suppressors who cite some racist idea that if urban voters want to win they gotta fight like hell to vote.
The measure of truly good leadership is drawing out the best in people. This is where Democrats always shine. Good to hear about all the newly registered voters! 
