Daniel Laurison on why low-income people are less likely to vote and participate in politics

Описание: We've talked a lot on this program about how Donald Trump won the 2024 election due to people who were less engaged in politics, and the evidence keeps piling up in that regard, including a study released last June by the Pew Research Center that found if non voters had voted, Donald Trump still would've won, and in fact, his margin would've been greater.

Before Trump came along, however, the so-called unlikely voters had a preference more for Democrats than for Republicans. That's at least according to two polls that were done by Suffolk University in 2012 and 2018. Which we discussed actually here on this program.

What changed for these people in the meantime? That's a difficult question to answer because non-voters are a lot more difficult to contact than people who are interested in politics and are registered to vote and intend to vote. People who are not engaged in the political process are not likely to answer the phone to strangers. And much less likely to take a phone call poll or to answer an online survey about their political beliefs.

And so that's why in this episode, I wanted to feature Daniel Laurison. He's a sociologist at Swarthmore College who just released a new survey that is based on detailed interviews with 144 lower income Pennsylvanians who do not vote regularly.


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GUEST LINKS
Why Lower-Income People Don't Vote – and How to Engage People Who Feel Shut Out of the Political System
https://www.swarthmore.edu/understand...

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellauris...


TIMECODES (Full episode)
00:00 Introduction
07:26 Non-voters feel the political system is for the rich; they're not wrong
17:12 Trump constantly takes credit and shifts blame; Democrats don't
22:56 Non-voters are choosing not to participate, not being driven away by barriers
31:09 Republicans stay in touch with voters between elections through advocacy media
39:40 The loss of third spaces and ways to meet friends and network
48:14 Democrats have redirected local engagement funds to advertising, and it hasn't worked
53:43 Trump's love of self-promotion matches today's political need for constant communication


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Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux Community, a new content network of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.

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