[WS:] I do not think it is simple apathy. It is a part of a broader Weltanschauung in which private is beautiful and public is a necessary evil to be avoided like a plague. Most people in this country (and many other as well) actually buy into this capitalist mindset that favors private over public pursuits. They fundamentally believe in private business, event though they may disapprove some of its practices, and they are fundamentally distrustful of the public sector and collective security arrangement, even though they may depend on it at some time.
So this whole Republican rhetoric of business efficiency and small government sounds like common sense to a great majority of people here, and they are naturally suspicious of anything that even remotely looks like collectivism. That is why so many people get so seemingly apathetic about progressive politics, which is fundamentally alien to their Weltanschauung, but can get very excited about right wing politics which portrays itself as a defense of their core value system - private property, private business, and the supremacy of the individual over collective - from real or alleged threats of un-American ideologies.
It is not just general apathy - but rather apathy toward the politics of social welfare, wealth redistribution and curtailment of private business entrepreneurship. There is a reason why the left's calls for business regulation after the Great Meltdown fell largely on deaf ears, whereas the right's call to defend America from Obamacare sparked the tea party movement. I am reasonably certain that if someone run for the office on a European-style welfare state social democratic platform, he/she would not get more than 25% of the popular votes nationwide - maybe 30% on a good day.
Wojtek
On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Bryan Atinsky <bryan at alt-info.org> wrote:
> Doug, I really wish it was about political conviction, but from what I have seen, it is simply that politics is uninteresting to a lot of people and they can't be bothered. maybe if Rogers was running on the Packer Party ticket.
>
> Bryan
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Apr 11, 2011, at 12:31, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>> Maybe the masses just can't get excited about voting for Democrats.
>>
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