I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career, and we moved many, many times. ... It is no excuse. My voting record, my registration record, is unacceptable.
I'm intrigued that someone who achieved such professional success in the private sector was, until earlier this very decade, so focused on her husband's career. What about her own career? Wouldn't that--along with raising a family--be a better excuse (if, in my opinion, still a clearly inadequate one) for not participating in the political process?
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I found this article interesting because my mother had a similiar experience. My mom worked some as a young adult and stayed home with me and my older sister for 10 years. She didn't vote during those years. She started voting after going back to work full-time as a social worker.
I have a feeling that Ms. Whitman's experience might be shared by many Americans...
I wonder, quite honestly, how much this has to do with privilege. There are indeed many reasons people choose not to vote, and many reasons why people are unable to vote, including time constraints, family obligations, lack of access to polling locations, etc. But I wonder with a woman as highly educated, wealthy, and internationally known such as Meg Whitman if there was a not a simple reason for her not only failing to register but also failing to vote. I postulate that that reason might have a great deal to do with her privilege and faith that no matter who was elected president (and governor, and mayor, and representative, and senator), her interests would be protected as part of a very small and very powerful ruling class.
Why are (some) Americans so apolitical? I have such a hard time wrapping my mind around it. You would be hard pressed to see a house without an American flag flying on the 4th of July, but roughly only 50% of eligible American voters cast ballots? More Americans vote for American Idol than elections. I know people with serious health problems -- coupled with a serious lack of health insurance -- who aren’t registered to vote. It is baffling to me that engaging in the political process doesn’t cross the minds of people with so much to gain in the outcome.
We often think of barriers keeping people away from the ballot. While still an issue, I think apathy is more at play.
Personally, I find this story infuriating. The possibility of having a governor who is so apolitical she can a) not vote, and b) accept no responsibility and BLAME it on her husband and children, is maddening. She claims to have not voted because of an interest in her family, but her initial interest in politics (restrictive laws on businesses) says otherwise.
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