Conclusions

The message from working-class and low-income people is clear: politics feels like it’s built for someone else. Many working-class and low-income people see politics as a corrupt game played by wealthy people, a game they are neither invited to nor equipped to play, and one which they will inevitably lose. People who don’t see their identities, values, or lived experience in the political arena feel culturally and emotionally alienated – and sometimes actively excluded – from political participation.

Nonvoting among our respondents is not primarily about barriers, ignorance, or apathy. What may look like indifference is instead a sense that things don’t change or that their voices don’t matter. Most think voting would be easy and accessible, but make active decisions to abstain because of their dissatisfaction with and disconnection from politics, candidates, and government.

When lower-income people interact with the government, those interactions are often negative, whether in crumbling school buildings, via means-tested and insufficient social programs, or in encounters with the police. Positive, meaningful contact with government and political practitioners is much less common.

To revive and sustain a healthy democracy, working-class and low-income people will need to believe that politics is worth it. Ultimately, political participation is largely a matter of trust – having faith that the system can work, and that people in government have one’s best interests at heart. Social science and common sense tell us that trust comes from relationships, from connections. Trust can be built through meaningful, two-way relationships developed and sustained over time.

People will vote if they believe that politics can meaningfully improve their lives, if they see themselves reflected in politics, campaigns, candidates, and government, and if they feel genuinely listened to and cared about by those who have, or seek, political power.

Lower rates of voting among working-class and low-income people are neither natural nor immutable. It is possible to have a democracy that includes everyone.

We hope this report will inspire everyone who cares about democracy to work to repair the political disconnect, to bridge the gap between the world of electoral politics and the lives of low-income and working-class people.