"Did Not Vote" Would Have Won Every Election in America

Both parties have rejected common sense and civility in the name of chasing ideological utopianism.

And they're doing it all to placate the most radical voices in their base.

The result? So many Americans are politically apathetic that they sit out the process entirely.

And honestly, can you blame them? When both options feel like they were built for the loudest people in the room, a lot of folks just stop showing up.

The Biggest Winner Wasn't on the Ballot

If "Did Not Vote" were a candidate last election, it would have won every single race in the country.

That's not hyperbole for clicks. Look at the presidential race. Roughly 156.8 million ballots were counted in 2024, out of a voting-eligible population of about 243.8 million. That's around 87 million eligible Americans who didn't show up (UF Election Lab).

The winning candidate got about 77.3 million votes (FEC).

So "Did Not Vote" beat the actual winner by roughly 10 million. Let that sink in.

Do I Want Everyone Voting? Absolutely Not.

Now here's where I'm going to lose some of you.

Do I want every single person in America voting? Absolutely not.

Because that would require every voter to be at least semi-educated on what and who they're voting for. And we are nowhere close to that.

I've become much more skeptical of this universal democratic idea where everybody gets an equal vote. Go man-on-the-street, ask 10 people who the current vice president is, and you'll get five saying Joe Biden.

Five out of ten. And those votes count exactly the same as yours.

The Icky Feeling (and Why It Fades)

I know there's an icky feeling around restricting voting access. I get it. I felt it too.

But when you see how many folks have no idea how the political process works, it becomes radicalizing.

Here's my moment. I was standing in line to vote in Philadelphia in 2020, and a group in front of me was unironically talking about voting for Kanye.

Unironically. For Kanye.

What are we even doing?

These are the people standing in the same line as you, filling out the same ballot, with the exact same weight on the outcome as someone who actually spent time learning what's on it.

Who's Paying for All This?

It gets worse when you look at the money.

There's a massive drain on the tax base relative to spending, and most of that spending goes to ridiculous unfunded liabilities.

Those programs are often taken for granted. And they're taken advantage of by folks who frankly shouldn't even be here.

Let me be clear on that one. Not from a who-they-are standpoint, but a process standpoint.

The immigration process might be difficult, but it's like that by design. Skipping the line isn't a loophole. It's the whole problem.

When Worlds Collide

I think back to a freshman college class I took called "When Worlds Collide."

What we're seeing right now is a natural manifestation of forced cultural collisions.

We were told diversity was our strength because we were a melting pot. Cultures would come here and assimilate. That was the deal.

Now assimilation is rejected en masse.

So instead of a melting pot, we get enclaves of ethnic and cultural groups competing instead of assimilating. And competing groups don't build a shared country. They build rivals.

The One Thing Everyone Agrees On

There's no clear answer for how to fix it. I'm not going to pretend there is.

But everybody, left, right and the 87 million who stayed home, agrees on one thing.

What the Boomers prescribed for the past 50-plus years has been a massive failure.

The parties chase utopia. Half the country checks out. A chunk of the other half shows up thinking Joe Biden is still the VP or Kanye is a serious option. And we keep acting surprised at the results.

Maybe the answer isn't more voters. Maybe it's better ones.