I used to think we should lower the voting age. Young people seemed more politically aware than they were given credit for. But I now realize I was in a bubble, surrounded by engaged, educated, left-leaning people. Y'know, like... people on tumblr.
In reality, most people don't feel the real impact of political policies until their mid-to-late 20s, unless they're already politically active and, frankly, radicalized.
So here's a hot-chili-pepper-ass-take: Maybe we should raise the voting age. Note - this is a point of conjecture, not an actual proposition.
Not because young people don't deserve a voice, but because we've failed so badly at political education that most voters, young and old, don't understand the stakes until it's too late. Maybe they never will.
Someone who was 16 when a party took power might not start paying real attention to politics until they're 25 or older. Say that party got two terms. By then, that 25 year old is hungry for change. But will they grasp that different doesn't always mean better? Sometimes, it means worse. Much worse. A fresh face may promise change, but it's always important to ask what they want to build, what they stand for, and especially, what they plan to dismantle.
Since I started voting, Canada has had three main parties: the Conservatives (right), the Liberals (centre-right), and the NDP (ostensibly centre-left). Over time, each of these parties has drifted further to the right, loudly or quietly.
There is now no serious left-leaning alternative.
The outcome of last night's election saw what I'd call a "progressive conservative" at the head of the Liberals, narrowly beat an increasingly regressive and socially conservative opposition. The NDP, meanwhile, alienated their base and lost official party status. The gap for the left is now even wider. The Conservatives were already eating the NDP's lunch with populist pandering to blue collar workers. Now there is no left-leaning party to actually represent those people.
The great lie of Western politics is that the right represents common people and common sense. In reality, it has long served the accumulation of wealth and power at the expense of workers. They sell the lie by convincing those same workers that tax cuts for the rich will trickle down, and that pouring money into police will somehow stop demonstrably non-existent crime waves.
And what is especially offensive to me is that the Liberals are not much better. They represent a dwindling "middle class." So, when we lefties hold our noses and vote for the lesser of two evils, we know we aren't getting what we need. But we have no leverage to prove that the Conservatives would be worse, because letting them win would actually be worse. They would do as they always do: find ways to extract wealth from us at the expense of our health and well-being. We have to prop up the status quo that these voters hate because they can't see that they are not actually represented by the party they support.
For them, and for me, there is no alternative. The NDP made several mistakes - not the least of which is simply drifting right. They abandoned sex workers. They sought market solutions to social problems. They cater to the dwindling middle class instead of the working class. They failed to take a stance on the conflict in the Middle East and punished those who did.
Key to the Conservative platform is tax breaks. This resonates strongly with that blue-collar base. But it preys on their confusion. There is a consistent resentment toward taxation that gets worse when you can't see where your money is going. If you're freelance, on contract, or a retiree you pay in one lump sum instead of little by little, and it can feel like theft. White-collar employees don't feel it the same way, as it comes off their paycheques regularly. Reduced taxes seem like putting money back into your pocket, but if there's any still going toward funding cops, military, and corporate subsidies, then how much is going into healthcare, transit, and affordable housing - the things you use?
For every necessary service like healthcare that gets privatized, out-of-pocket costs shoot up, and the taxes you are paying get spent on things you'll never use. Like F-31 jets.
Anyway. I wish political education was better. It's bad out here.
