The Voting Gap and Why Increased Wealth and Income Taxes Will Never Occur

Supposedly Jesus said ‘the poor will always be with us’.  If he did indeed say that (direct quotes that are written down 60-100 years after the fact are somewhat suspect) it is unlikely that he meant that they will remain poor because of voting disparities.  But today’s income and wealth disparities can at least partly be attributed to exactly that.

In the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections 67% percent of people with incomes over $100k voted, as compared to only 33% of people with incomes under $20k, who make up about 21% of the population.  This is an enormous difference.  If one makes the reasonable assumption that poor people will tend to vote quite heavily for candidates who will work toward higher taxes and more infrastructure to support the middle and lower classes, then this disparity in voting has a dramatic impact on our sociopolitical situation.

 

The situation is slightly better for presidential elections, but there is still a wide disparity in voter turnout as one goes up the income axis.  The graphs below show different estimates of voter turnout for several past presidential elections.

There has always been a strong distrust of true democracy in our country by more conservative groups. Initially, only white male property owners could vote.  Over time the vote was extended to all white males, then to black and white males, then finally to females.  But with each extension efforts were made to limit voting by groups with lower income and/or less education or based on racial codes.

 

Those who remain suspicious of truly universal suffrage argue that lower education levels or a lack of civic responsibility in the lower classes precludes them making thoughtful election choices.  Whether this is a sincere argument or a subterfuge to mask a basic political strategy of limiting voting by lower income groups is of course an interesting question. 

 

Why is there such a large disparity in voter turnout?  The right would argue that it is because these lower income voters are less conscientious citizens who lack the motivation and discipline to vote.  The left would argue that there are enormous obstacles to voting when one is poor – transportation, absence from work (elections are held on workdays), registration hurdles, etc.- and that these obstacles are purposely placed by those who fear a larger voter turnout.

 

One of the great failures of the left in the last 30 years has been its inability to strengthen the middle and lower classes when in power.  This has led to the flight of many of those voters to the populist politics of the republican party and Trump, aided in part by the culture wars that have been waged by the right.  This has also led to apathy among some groups of voters, who do not see any hope for change and thus lose interest in the election process.

 

Whatever the reason for the voter turnout gap, I would argue that the only way for a more egalitarian society to emerge without revolution is for voters at the lower end of the scale to be mobilized.  I am not optimistic that this will occur simply because the history of voting in the USA does not give any compelling reason to believe things will change.  If a way could be found to make people aware of the impact that a change in voter turnout could have, then perhaps lower income voters would respond.  But that type of analysis is difficult to get across (shades of Ross Perot and his charts and graphs!).  Still, it would be worth a try.  Slinging mud is definitely not working!