[fve]http://youtu.be/kh87T9v460A[/fve]
Sean McElwee discusses voter turnout and its impact on democracy with Richard Eskow
Sean McElwee, a writer and a research assistant at Demos, wrote an excellent piece laying out the importance of voter turnout in four charts.
Basically, what they show is that there was a time when the demographics of the voting population roughly matched that of non-voters. The net result was a voting process that essentially matched the preferences and interests of the electorate.
That has changed. These days the voting population is skewed toward the wealthier and more privileged, meaning that the interests of the struggling majority aren’t as well-represented. This is another factor leading to the skewing of our political system toward the oligarchical class, and it’s important to reverse that trend.
We discussed this issue in the clip above. Take a listen if you’re interested — and read Sean’s article.