U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout (2018)

Given the current discussion on political apathy in the US I think this data fits well into this pattern.

Looking at the voter turnout for United States (2016) of the of voting-age population you have merely 55.70% voting. (For comparison, the scale goes up to 87.21% in Belgium). Only roughly HALF of the population casts their votes in federal elections. Since a lot of the current policing decisions are made on a state or local level where voter turnout is even worse, this is a democracy in crisis.

What could be the drivers for this? I think you get a hint if you look at the other column, where you see the % of voter turnout based on registration. In most countries listed here, these numbers are almost identical because you are registered as a voter by default if you are a citizen. OR, if you are in the US, the % climbs to a whopping 86.80%, illustrating what a negative impact this system has.

Let people vote. Get rid of this ridiculus competition to cut and slice voter districts to party needs (gerry-mandering) and stop suppressing voters by other means if you want a system that actually allows politicians to work for their voters and not for donors / special interest groups that keep you paid.

Trump said it out loud didn't he? That the republican party would cease to exist, or similar, if voting-by-mail were widely allowed.

This should surprise nobody. I live in a blue state. My vote is practically meaningless because of the electoral college system. Yes, there's some signalling to be done, but on affecting the short term outcome? Nada.

MLK has a great quote, "“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." That's exactly what our current presidential race offers to many young people. Trump is perceived as the guy with absolute misunderstanding and ill will with corrupt greed. But Joe Biden's a turd. He was pro segregation in the 70s. That should be an absolute non-starter to many people, but here he is as the "best option" with a healthy political career 40 years later. I don't especially believe he's a racist individual but his recent comments show he has grossly shallow understanding of race relations, among other things.

The only thing that could disenfranchise me more would be concern that the actual voting process had been compromised.

And this isn't an idea that Trump came up with himself, he's just said the quiet part out loud. So, if we take it as given that Republican politicians and strategists are motivated to restrict the franchise by the same belief this means they believe they cannot obtain power under a properly administered democracy yet they believe they have a right to govern. There are an awful lot of people in the US with only a very transactional relationship to the idea of democracy.

The US also lacks a broad based workers party like a Labour Party in UK or Australia. The people that don’t vote probably would vote for such a party.