社評0819 美國的老人政治

美國的老人政治

當休斯敦市市長大選在十一月投票時，選民多半是超過十歲之長者 ，而且投票率很低。 在2019 年之選舉中只有約十分之一的市民二十四萬一千人前往投票， 市議員只有六千人真正前往投票， 這個數字令人十分震驚。

根據目前人口統計， 全市二百三十萬市民中， 登記選舉人口是一百七十三萬人 ， 其中年齡在六十歲以上之居民多半擁有自己之住宅 ，他們和市府關係密切， 因此前往投票之意願也較高 ，許多年輕人则是漠不關心。

試看我們市長選舉， 兩位候選人皆超過七十歲 。如果投票人數只有二十多萬票 ，和二百三十萬居民相比， 只有不過百分之十二左右， 這是真正能代表全體民意嗎？

老實說 ，一般平民大眾似乎不太在乎政治， 只對衣食住行生活品質及就業有高度興趣。 

從白宮到國會及地方選舉幾乎是年長之執政者在撑控中， 這也是我們政治上之隱憂 ，年青人為生活奔走， 從政之意願不高， 只有變成老人政治了。

 Politics Of The Elderly In America

During the Houston mayoral election of 2019, most of the voters were older than sixty years old. Only about 12% of all registered voters went out to vote. The total ballot count that year was 241,000 and for the city election, only 6,000 votes were needed to be elected. 

According to the data, our city has a population of 2.3 million. Only 1.73 million are registered voters of which most of them are senior citizens. They own homes and live  close to city services so they are the ones who will go out and vote. 

Our major candidates in the mayor's race this year are Senator Whitmire and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Both of them are over seventy years old. To be honest, most young people don’t own a home. What they really care about is their own life and economic issues. 

We are so concerned that we really need more younger politicians to join in the political race.