A couple of days ago I was at the hairdresser’s for the first time in 12 weeks. Masks on, hand sanitizer liberally applied, sterilizer prepping her three pairs of scissors. Those weren’t the only differences.

Normally we don’t talk about politics. Apparently, this is the first rule of hairdresser school: don’t talk about politics. It upsets your customers. You want happy customers who keep coming back because you make them feel good.

But this time, my mother/family provider hairdresser had had a substantial down time. Her kids had no school activities. She had no business to run. She watched a lot of news, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. She read the papers and the stories coming across her news feed. She delved into the issues a little more deeply than she normally had a chance to do. She came out of her Co-Vid stay-at-home weeks with a lot to say about politics.

I imagine the same is true for many people who had been focused for years on working hard and ferrying families thither and yon, until it all came to an abrupt halt. Suddenly the country is full of citizens who are more informed. Despite the caricatures of families in pajamas, binge-watching favorite TV shows, take-out food piling up all around them, people spent some of their down time paying more careful attention to national issues.

One of the unfortunate side effects of having time to take in what is happening in our country is misinformation. Social media – and the news media – is full of untruths, half truths and distortions of the facts. In the aftermath of our CoVid isolation, we need a chance to think a little more deeply about the stories we came to believe, and get rid of the ones that are untruths and conspiracy theories.  We need time to talk and argue with one another about what’s real and what isn’t.

Another unfortunate side effect of so much isolation is despair – defined as the complete loss of hope. I feel great sorrow for the people who emerged from the cocoon of being at home for weeks on end feeling as if there is no point in following the politics of the nation. Feeling as if all politicians, all corporations, all public figures are corrupt. Feeling like it is futile to cast a vote.

When we get bogged down in the discrepancies between what a politician says they will do and the actions they take, or their failure to act on the things they said they would do, the sense of voter fatigue becomes overwhelming. When we start to see corruption at every level of the corporate and political worlds, feelings of being powerless to change things are hard to tamp down.

If we choose to be a non-voter, however, we have a strong influence on elections, especially when the numbers of those who do not vote are high. Our failure to vote can result in outcomes even worse than our dislike for the candidates.

In the last election, 30% of eligible voters did not vote. That is a higher percentage of the voting population than the percent that voted for Clinton or the percent that voted for Trump (Washington Post, 8/9/2018). In interviews of non-voters afterward, very few of the non-voters said they would have voted for Trump (The Guardian, 1/18/17). In this case it became clear that withholding a vote can have a stunning effect on results.

The best way to overcome voter fatigue is to switch our focus from what a politician says they will do, to a focus on what they value. First, we need to be clear about our own personal values. Try to name them (even better, write them down).  What are my feelings about poverty and homelessness? How do I think people should respond to national tragedies, such as the over 100,000 deaths from Co-Vid? How important is it to me that my children learn to appreciate and value the natural world? What does Black Lives Matter mean for my life?

Also think about the values that we think are important for the country as a whole. Should we have universal health care, or should health care depend on a person’s ability to pay for it? How important is the quality of public education in this country, or equal access to higher education? Are there reasons to modify the right to own a gun, or Citizens United? How important is freedom of religion to our identity as Americans? What should we as a country do to disarm the culture of racism?

At the risk of going on too long, I want to highlight some specific values from the last presidential campaign that we were giving thought to:

  • How should we treat immigrants? Would we want to give them the same care and concern as any other person, or do we think they deserved to be punished for immigrating?
  • Should Muslims and their religion be banned from this country, as punishment for 9/11, or do we want them to be free to live as any other American lives?
  • How much help should we give to large corporations in the form of tax cuts? How does the influence of corporate dollars affect the financial well-being of those of us who trudge off to work each day?

Once we have articulated our values, we are better equipped to listen for the values of each candidate. Listen to what they say and how it reveals what they value. As they talk about the programs and policies they intend to put into place, we are listening for the values that underlie those promises, because that’s how we will vote.

We also need to look to see how that individual lives their own life, because that tells us far more about their values than their speeches do. A politician’s history is important. What decisions have they made and why? Their behavior on a daily basis and their behavior in the face of a challenge is important. What a candidate has taken the time to know and understand is important. All of these aspects of a person reveal their inherent values. Focusing on values helps to make sense out of the voting process.