Candidate Who?

One more sign that people's lives are going pretty well: They don't care about presidential candidates.

From an AP account of a CBS poll:

Two-thirds of voters ? including two-thirds of Democrats ? were unable to name any of the Democratic candidates for president, said the CBS News poll out Sunday.

(Emphasis added).

As the presidential campaign season swings into full gear, get ready for a steady stream of "vanishing voter" stories, in which pundits and graybeards bewail the lack of interest in retail politics.

I wrote about the much-vilified "AWOL Electorate" before the 2000 presidential election and, even with 9/11 and the Iraq war, I think my main point still holds true:

We participate less in politics for the same reason we stopped going to drive-in movies the way we used to, getting married as teenagers, making dinner at home, and, for men at least, wearing blue suits with white shirts and red ties: not because we can?t, but because we don?t want to. Our flesh is not weak when it comes to voting; it?s just not willing.

The center of gravity in American life has shifted away from partisan politics and into other areas of activity in which individuals (and groups of individuals) have far greater hopes for gaining satisfaction. The big story in American life over the past few decades is not the decline in voter participation but the ever-increasing proliferation of options, of choices, and of identities in everyday life.