In the fall of 1999, then Governor of Texas George W Bush spoke to the Latin Business Association as he campaigned for the presidency of the United States. His overarching theme was the renewal of the US educational system, which was leaving vulnerable groups behind, thus thwarting their future potential. He had a clear mandate to deliver, which would see to the safety of schools, students’ character, standardised education goals, and the expected accountability principles.

Governor Bush declared, in what has become one of his most prolific speeches to date, “No child in America should be segregated by low expectations, imprisoned by illiteracy, abandoned to frustration and darkness of self-doubt… Now, some say it is unfair to hold disadvantaged children to rigorous standards. I say it is discrimination to require anything less — the soft bigotry of low expectations….”

More specifically, there are no excuses for striving with high standards or wanting the best outcomes for yourselves and your children. But regardless of who you are, where you come from, or your skin colour, the leaders in charge of a country must create an environment to give everyone an equal fighting chance for success.

As you read this you may feel I am writing about our educational system and how to level the playing field. I am not.

Instead, how the palpable disinterest of people around the world is getting louder towards governance symbols of authority who pontificate political narratives to win elections as they fail to understand the real bread and butter issues of daily life.

US Former President Barack Obama put it best recently on Pod Save America as he berated how Democrats can sometimes be “a buzzkill… too often framing issues through the lens of identity politics that force people to feel as though they’re walking on eggshells. Sometimes people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells, and they want some acknowledgement that life is messy and that all of us, at any given moment, can say things the wrong way [and] make mistakes.”

This month The New York Times Siena College Poll was published on October 18, 2022, demonstrating American voter apathy. Seventy-one per cent of all voters said democracy was at risk but were indifferent about it being a danger. Overall, the more profound dissatisfaction from voters polled surrounded a political system that appeared more divided and corrupt, leaving them pessimistic about the future of the country coming together to solve its problems, no matter which party wins the US midterm elections next month.

Furthermore, the poll’s findings were evident that, for many Americans, the outcome of this year’s midterm elections will primarily be determined by the personal cost of living issues, “leaving threats to the country’s democratic institutions lurking in the back of voters’ minds”.

When voter apathy kicks in, so can extreme occurrences of authoritarianism. While Brazilians may be a few weeks away from their presidential election’s second round, which will decide between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro, the fact is that they may re-elect as president someone who demonstrated a lack of tolerance for the principles of democracy and once declared that, “The dictatorship should have killed many more Brazilians, including then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.”

However, given the global political environment, his probable re-election may seem like par for the course given that the political heirs of Benito Mussolini now govern Italy and Sweden’s new governing party has roots in Nazism. What’s more, the V-Dem Institute estimates that approximately 70 per cent of the world’s population lived under some form of autocratic government last year, compared to 40 per cent a decade before. Recall that US President Donald Trump failed to get re-elected in 2020, but still received 74 million votes.

It seems puzzling that now millions of ordinary people worldwide are reversing their embrace of liberal politics (that shaped the latter part of the twentieth century) to what some experts call “illiberal authoritarianism”.

Here at home, Jamaicans are tired of the constant posturing of political goals-scoring of who did what, who did it first, and the unyielding public relations surrounding the policies for their development — often with irrational or indefensible decision-making according to tribal party lines. The extent of this is that only 38 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2020 General Election. That’s 714,326 who voted out of a possible 1,913,410 individuals registered to vote. This is a severe cause for concern.

What are we to do in the face of the statistics showing that 62 per cent of our voting population couldn’t care less about who makes the decisions regarding the laws governing their everyday lives? Are we to continue with business being content to watch this number grow as we still boast about having an enviable democracy?

The most recent Don Anderson poll published last month signalled the ominous sign that more Jamaicans are losing confidence in the country’s two main political parties. When asked if an election were called today, who would you vote for? Some 34 per cent of respondents indicated they were not interested in voting for neither the People’s National Party (PNP) nor Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). While 17 per cent of the people interviewed said they were undecided if they would vote at all.

In his response to the media, pollster Don Anderson stated, “This trend has been continuing for several years, indicating more Jamaicans are becoming increasingly indifferent to the political process or the parties involved.” (RJR, September 12, 2022)

I don’t believe Jamaicans are dispassionate about politics; I think they are bored with the lack of imagination from the options presented nationally. For many of them, “dem born come si” some of the same people still making the laws of the country, and their lives are no better off with their presence. So why bother to participate? Why get our expectations up? What is going to change? These are some of the questions many of them ask me.

My response has always been an adaptation from John Stuart Mill: That they should never pacify their conscience by the delusion that no harm will be done if they don’t participate and that it won’t make a difference. These attributes of bigotry, apathy, nonchalance, and general indifference towards what’s in the best interest of your country are not virtues to hold on to as it sabotages future generations to the unfairness of mediocrity, inequity, and inequality.

It’s time to press reset to move away from doing what’s politically expedient, as winning elections is generally forgotten. Instead, it’s time for us to strengthen our participatory democracy, genuinely engage our people more meaningfully, and increase their expectations that we can create systems for them to lead successful lives.