社评0819 美国的老人政治

美国的老人政治

当休斯敦市市长大选在十一月投票时，选民多半是超过十岁之长者 ，而且投票率很低。 在2019 年之选举中只有约十分之一的市民二十四万一千人前往投票， 市议员只有六千人真正前往投票， 这个数字令人十分震惊。

根据目前人口统计， 全市二百三十万市民中， 登记选举人口是一百七十三万人 ， 其中年龄在六十岁以上之居民多半拥有自己之住宅 ，他们和市府关係密切， 因此前往投票之意愿也较高 ，许多年轻人则是漠不关心。

试看我们市长选举， 两位候选人皆超过七十岁 。如果投票人数只有二十多万票 ，和二百三十万居民相比， 只有不过百分之十二左右， 这是真正能代表全体民意吗？

老实说 ，一般平民大眾似乎不太在乎政治， 只对衣食住行生活品质及就业有高度兴趣。 

从白宫到国会及地方选举几乎是年长之执政者在撑控中， 这也是我们政治上之隐忧 ，年青人為生活奔走， 从政之意愿不高， 只有变成老人政治了。

 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.