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FOUR SOLID REASONS FOR PARTICIPATING  (Plus Two Bonus Reasons)  
  

1. You already make the investment,  through taxes—Political involvement gives you more value from your investment. Most Americans above the poverty line have invested thousands of dollars a year, through taxes. If you don't get involved, you still will get some returns on your investment: police protection, paved roads, education for youth, sanitation, military protection against invasion, and hundreds of other benefits. But your involvement will make the difference in many other cases.  

A problem with government that can't be eliminated but can be managed is that people in government get to spend other people's money—your money. If you've ever had the opportunity to spend other people’s money, you know that it's hard to be as careful with their money as you are with yours. It's human nature to spend it faster. So the way to manage the situation is to let people in government know that people are paying attention to how they spend your money.

If you become politically involved, you will rarely see the benefits come directly to you in the same tax year. Rarely will you see something visible, such as a community center built for you in your neighborhood, or a tax break. More often, the benefits aren't directly seen by you. Sometimes your efforts benefit others; and sometimes their efforts benefit you.


2. Assurance/Insurancefor the future: An even better reason for involvement is to assure and “insure” your future quality of life. Most Americans who can afford insurance buy it. Think of political action as another way to buy insurance for you and your family. Often government agencies not only waste tax-money, they fail to spend it on programs that adequately protect your health, children, community and property. Time spent in politics helps ensure that the services you will need in the near future and in the long run will be there when you need them.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated what happens when people don't keep an eye on government. Even those Americans not directly affected by Katrina will be affected in the next few years. That's because the government will spend $100-$200 billion in repairs and aid, when they would have had to spend perhaps a tenth of that, had they been proactive. The extra $90-$180 billion will come out of your pocket in future taxes; AND you will spend more because of cutbacks in other government services; AND you will spend more because of disruptions in transportation of food and fuel (gasoline and natural gas.)  People will point the finger at officials who didn't do their jobs, and they will deserve blame. Yet, given what we said about how people spend other people's money, the quality of the government in the long run is the responsibility of the citizen voter.  

If you want government to be proactive, you must be proactive. Proof Through the Night is a way to do that! Actually, proactivity is much better than insurance, because insurance just spreads out financial risk among many people, but proactivity cuts costs down fivefold to a hundredfold. ("a stitch in time saves nine.")  So if you don't pay now through political action, you will pay much more later, in heartache, anger or suffering.

By the way, anger management is no small part of this for many people. If you are vexed by politics, you will keep feeling anger, disappointment and bitterness until you begin to take action. And even if your party or political action group doesn't always win, you still can feel validated in speaking out and taking action.


3. Self-preservation. This is similar to insurance, but now we are talking about your survival and existence, not just damage to your property from floods, or loss of property from theft (due in part to lack of police protection or lack of jobs and opportunities). Political action saves lives in many ways: It can eliminate industrial sources of carcinogens; decreasing violent crime; It addresses public health menaces (from the flu to sewage treatment); and it creates saner military and government policies that will decrease war and terrorism. In this century of weapons of mass destruction, it's even more important to weigh in on national policy. Political involvement is a way to help ensure your long-range survival. In this century there are a lot of reasons for fear, and a lot of reasons for anxiety. More than ever before, it is critical for people to take action to decrease this fear. One of the best ways to do this is to get behind policies that take care of people, and to dismantle destructive policies that harm people or damage key infrastructure  (such as our natural environment, and our educational and health institutions.)


4. Long-range economic concerns. A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development states that over 60% of Americans ages 16-25 are 'functionally illiterate', meaning they can't, for example, fill out a detailed form or read a numerical table (like a time schedule). Ignorance of this magnitude must already cause great incapacity, inefficiency and waste in the American workforce, and the long-range impact is even gloomier. Political action is a prime way to try to reverse this.

Meanwhile, according to Dr. Marvin Mickle, a professor in three departments at the University of Pittsburgh, there is another source of concern: "We will graduate 60,000 engineers this year across the country, but China will graduate 500,000 engineers. You might say that not all of those will be quality engineers, but if only half are of some quality, that's cause for concern." 

On top of that, China's current investment in US Treasury bonds gives them great potential power to disrupt our economy. 

If you aren't already politically involved, the time to take action on things like educational standards, medical benefits, globalization, and Social Security is now. You may think it's already too late, or that not enough Americans will get involved, or can get involved. But remember, Proof Through the Night has strategies to turn this around.

Two Bonus Reasons  

5. Politics is another means of doing good and helping others. Not everyone is interested in doing good, but most people don’t like it when others are oppressed politically, economically or psychologically. Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger organization estimates that money spent on political action leverages many more dollars to fight hunger than simply donating the money. So a little political effort can go a long way. 

6. Some people gave their lives so you can live in freedom. Others dedicated their lives to public service. In any case, freedom is not free. We have been entrusted with a bill of rights. We must do things to preserve our freedoms, our rights and our quality of life. You know that most things in your personal life take maintenance—things in your home, your health, and even your personal relationships—your freedoms take some maintenance, too.

What turns off people about politics, and what can be done about it?

The turn-offs:


1. The belief that greedy and powerful people always win.

We have three responses:

a.  A little bit of political involvement can go a long way. Special interest groups have full-time lobbyists who work in Washington and the state capitols, but if 220 million American voters spend just two or three hours a month, it would totally overwhelm the special interests and would make politicians do what America needs to have done. Our time just needs to be concentrated in the right way. In other words, special interests may be working full time, but the number of Americans of voting age far outnumbers them, so only a small amount of time is needed from each of us. Even if only half of all possible voters (110 million people) would do a little more, they would be by far the strongest and loudest voice in Washington !

b. Perception and self-fulfilling prophecies are a major factor in politics. Your pessimism about politics may be the best friend of those who want to dominate you.  In other words, your negative attitude itself serves the greedy and powerful. If you have already given up, then you are beaten. The greedy and powerful should hire your negative attitude to be their spokesperson!— That's because it has done their PR work for them in making you lose heart.

As Stephen Biko said, “The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Self-fulfilling prophecies can work both ways. If you believe that you’re beaten, then you are; but if you believe that small efforts can add up, then your confidence (and efforts) can inspire others, and that can lead to a powerful movement.  Raindrops make rivers, and rivers move mountains. 

c.  Besides raindrops making rivers, we have two other analogies from nature. Lions are the king of beasts. They dominate and create the framework for their ecosystem. In a similar way, many people consider corporations to be the dominant institutions in human society. You could say that they are the lions, and no other institution has more power—Even some governments sometimes bow to the power of multinational corporations. Yet, in nature, lions aren't going to take on a stampeding herd. As long as the herd stays together and united, they have the power to keep lions at bay. A second analogy: If a lion is scratched and the scratch becomes infected, it can take down the lion. The infection starts out as something tiny. But the numbers of bacteria double and redouble. In the human sphere, a political change can start with one person and a small group, and as long as the people organize and have faith in the power of numbers, they can bring down powerful individuals, corporations and even nations.  






2. The belief that you personally can't do much, and that not enough well-meaning people will get involved to change things. See cartoon!

Again, we have two responses to this negative attitude:

First, this seems to be true: not enough well-meaning people seem to be involved. But we have come up with some strategies to reverse this trend.  The primary strategy is a chain reaction of empowerment.  With (or without) the support of a friend, you empower yourself; then you support two or three people to empower themselves and pass on the support. In other words, most people have friends that they can influence or encourage to participate, and these people have other friends, and so on.  A chain reaction can grow very fast, and although some people in the chain won't share your politics, it's likely that a chain reaction will improve the quality of politics for two reasons:  1) the politics will reflect the views of a majority of people, and not a minority of power-brokers, and 2) part of this program is critical thinking and also taking in more quality news than before.  So the political actions of people in this chain reaction will be of higher quality.

Our second response, is to just point to history.  There are plenty of instances where groups of concerned citizens changed things.  On the larger scale, they range from the abolition of slavery, to women gaining the right to vote, to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.

Our third response is, again, to trust in the power of arithmetic, but in a different way. Raindrops make rivers, and rivers move mountains. You can't see the raindrops in the rivers, just like you can't see the effect of your vote. Most people are sure that the river came from raindrops, so why aren't they as sure of the power of individual votes? Certainly, your candidate doesn't always win, but that is part of the process.




3. The belief that even if you vote, it doesn't matter. The politicians will do what they want anyway.

Our response: In a way, we agree! Listen to this parable: Once there were two teams. On one team, the athletes exercised twice a year, on the other team, the athletes practiced year-round. Which team do you think won more often?  Which team deserved to win?  Of course, the team that practiced year-round. The team of athletes that practiced twice a year are the people who vote in the primary and general election, and didn't do anything else. The teams that practiced year round were the lobbyists and advocates that keep current with legislation and year-round make their voices heard through advocacy. These lobbyists and advocates don't just represent corporations, they represent nonprofits and different activist causes. They all are having some impact, otherwise they would have given up long ago. You can join them, and have your voice heard more clearly! This is why we at PTTN consider it worth your time to regularly monitor bills and issues you are concerned about—and then regularly communicate your views to your elected representatives. In our online course, we teach you how to do this!


4. The amount of dishonesty, lies, deceit and mean-spiritedness. The uncertainty of not knowing if you are being lied to.  

Our response is in three parts: First, there is a simple way to find out the truth about most candidates. Most have held office before and have either voting records, or have a record of actions they have taken in previous political jobs. These voting records can be easily accessed, and the Internet makes finding articles about officials easy. (See #3 on our Political Knowledge page.)

Second, everyone (maybe even you!) slants the truth in their favor. You need to realize that some "distortion and deception" is really people with different values expressing their values.

Third, unfortunately there is such a thing as escalation: If one candidate makes big fat promises that he won't keep, the other candidate might look weak or small by sticking to reasonable promises. Similarly, if one candidate runs negative ads, if the other doesn't, people might begin to believe that nothing is wrong with the one running the negative ads, but something is wrong with his/her opponent  (because they are believing the negative ads.)  Fortunately, however, the situation can be changed. Just as there has been de-escalation in nuclear weapons, there can be de-escalation in political dishonesty and exaggeration. It's a matter of the citizens showing that they will no longer tolerate or reward it.  

There is an old saying that "you deserve what you put up with." We believe that if voters protest to the candidates about how they do campaigns, campaigns will change. So, don't put up with it! Write emails telling candidates that you find attack ads and ads that press hot buttons but don't take clear stands as manipulative and unacceptable.


5. The inefficiency and waste in many government programs.  

Our response is that this may be another case of "you deserve what you put up with."  (See above.) Have you ever had the experience of spending other people's money?  It's easy to spend it freely when you haven't had to earn it yourself. That's why some vigilance and political action is necessary.


6. The high-stakes gamble of winner-take all elections. "When your candidate loses, it's a total and utter loss. " 

Our response is in two parts: First, if your candidate loses, it is a major loss, but not a total loss. Your candidate was given a chance to frame the issues. Your candidate had a chance to educate voters. Your candidate had a chance to sensitize voters to the shortcomings and weak points of the victor's platform and policies.

Second, most democracies in the world are not winner-take-all democracies. In most democracies, coalition governments form. So there is more give-and-take, and more tempering of policies in these democracies. On the national level, this change would require a constitutional convention, but it's still theoretically possible.


In summary, we will end by repeating "raindrops make rivers, and rivers move mountains."  The quickest way to change negative attitudes is positive action. In fact, you have no right to optimism if you don't take action.

Our vision for this web page: Research shows that discussion is one of the best ways to change attitudes. Many people certainly have negative attitudes about politics. So the vision for this web page is to create a simulated discussion. On this page will be photos of people who have different attitudes about politics. If you click on their picture, you will hear their thoughts about what motivates them to care or not care. We believe that their unscripted spoken words will be much more powerful than the reasons given below. Would you like to help with this project?  Contact us.

Many people are actively concerned about one or two issues.

Q:  What’s more important than any of the following political issues?

      a.     Increasing gas prices
     b.     Anti-terrorism 
     c.     Healthcare reform
     d.     Job loss / globalization
     e.     The war in Iraq

A: It’s having the essential knowledge and basic skills to affect all these issues—and cause positive change. 

It’s having an informed
and skilled
American electorate.