American elections take place on Mars….

It is interesting to see how the whole spectacle of the so called democratic process is upheld and performed at moments like this. All the performers of the drama dutifully say their bits, expressing joy at their party gaining some influence and disappointment when their party has lost seats. Television stations cover the election, political analysts attempt to explain preliminary results and commentators wonder whether a Republican victory means Obama is losing his popularity. There is some concern about low voter turnouts, but this is quickly sidestepped, as political ‘experts’ reassure us that this is perfectly normal in a by election like this, in fact, these type of elections have suffered low voter turnouts since the early 1900s.

What a relief! So we don’t have to bother looking for fundamental flaws in the American political system? We can take comfort in that. James E. Campbell of the University of Georgia assures he has discovered the reason why Americans don’t bother voting. The midterm elections lack a certain ‘wow factor’ and are therefore not interesting enough for the average person. Talk about disdain for your electorate. The fact of the matter is that voter turnout lies below 40% and more than 70 million American adults don’t even register themselves. Might something else be the matter?

Non-voters in the US are socially distinct from the people who do. On average, they are young, ethnically diverse, less affluent and less educated. Surprise surprise! Apart from the hurdles these non-voters face to actually try and get themselves registered, they simply aren’t represented by the American political system. It is quite easy to see how this works. Of the more than 12 000 interests groups actively lobbying in Washington, less than one per cent advocate directly on behalf of lower income people. These groups are outspent by big business by a factor of 3000 to one. The single largest donor to political campaigns contributed more money than the bottom 98% of citizens.
There now exists a gigantic economic underclass in the US, consisting of more than 50 million people. Half of these are living in dire poverty and have to survive on less than 12000 dollars a year for a family of four. On top of this, a hundred million US citizens barely exist above the poverty line, adding up to about half of America’s population being either poor or nearly poor. This ‘other America’ is just as real as the America portrayed in the coverage of the mid-term elections. What is staggering about these things is that these two Americas co-exist in almost complete isolation of each other. Millions of Americans are simply excluded from the political process. These elections are not about them, so it is hardly surprising they have no stake in them whatsoever. Disenfranchised as they are, these elections might as well have taken place on Mars.