George Carlin summed up voting more than 20 years ago for people feeling trapped in a system that mocks freedom and breeds cynicism.
“Voting is a meaningless exercise,” the late comedian wrote in 2001. “I’m not going to waste my time with it. These parties, these politicians, are given to us as a way of making us feel we have freedom of choice. But we don’t. Everything is done to you in this country.”
In his book “Napalm & Silly Putty,” Carlin argued that voting plays into the hands of autocrats.
Chris Shortell objects. A professor of political science in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, Shortell told Street Roots autocrats want people to think voting is a farce.
“That’s a sign of just how powerful voting is as a political tool,” he said. “Autocrats fear it. That’s why they try to manipulate it, why they try to control elections. They’re afraid of what elections can do.”
‘We’ve worked hard to making voting accessible’
It turns out the old chestnut is true. One vote can make a difference, especially at the state and local levels during midterm elections like the one coming in Oregon May 19.
Oregon Speaker of the House Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, points out that former Gov. Kate Brown won her first election to the Legislature in 1990 by seven votes. Former state Rep. Jack Zika won the Republican primary in his Bend district in 2018 by just two votes.
“At the city and county level, it’s even more common for elections to be determined by only a handful of votes,” Fahey told Street Roots.
Cynicism is not an excused absence from voting, she said, particularly in this state.
“In Oregon, we have worked hard to make voting accessible and secure because democracy works best when everyone has a say in how things work — especially people who are often overlooked and undervalued,” Fahey said.
‘We have to stay active and loud about this’
Shortell said Trump’s so-called SAVE Act (requiring proof of citizenship and curtailing mail-in voting) stands little chance of passing. Even if it does pass, he added, it likely won’t survive a barrage of immediate legal challenges.
“There’s not a lot of time left before the midterm elections from a legislating perspective,” he said.
State Rep. Farrah Chaichi, D-Aloha, is not quite as confident. Given the Trump administration’s zeal for violating norms and running roughshod over the Constitution, Chaichi told Street Roots she is bracing for the worst.
“November is seven months away,” she said. “We have seen things move that quickly. As individuals, we can’t just let it happen. We have to stay active and loud about this being a problem. People in positions of power can make things happen a lot faster than you expected.”
Shortell said threats to voting rights should be taken seriously. “There are authoritarians who have elections like Orbán in Hungary and Putin in Russia,” he said. “There are absolutely ways to manipulate elections.”
However, Russia and Hungary have centralized control over their elections. Elections in the United States are extraordinarily decentralized, Shortell said. “It’s really the counties that are doing most of the work of running elections and making decisions about elections.”
David Bernell, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University, likened the SAVE Act to poll taxes and other efforts to strip Black voters of their political power.
“Racist Jim Crow laws in the South were very effective for decades in keeping Black citizens from voting and ensuring white supremacy,” Bernell told Street Roots. “It is unlikely that the SAVE Act would be as effective in helping MAGA politicians, but this doesn’t diminish the fact that the bill would weaken democracy by adding new requirements (and even financial costs) to voter eligibility, making it more difficult to vote.”
‘Decisions are made by those who show up’
Trump and his MAGA acolytes are clearly scared, Shortell said. At last count, 14 Republican senators and 57 congressional representatives aren’t seeking reelection this year. Bernell said the numbers are significant.
“Had 115,000 people in three states switched their votes in 2024, Kamala Harris would be president right now,” he said. “An even smaller number of votes decided the 2016 and 2020 elections.
‘Society is not autocratic even if the head of state is’
Many people characterize Trump as a wannabe dictator, but political scientist Gerald Sussman told Street Roots an important distinction must be made.
“The U.S. society is not autocratic even if the head of state is,” he said. “There are many points of real and potential resistance, including the massive protests that have occurred during Trump’s reign.”
Sussman is a professor emeritus of urban and public affairs at Portland State University and the author of numerous books, including “Branding Democracy” and “Global Electioneering.”
“The biggest obstacle to electoral democracy in the United States is the dominance of the class of very wealthy and extremely wealthy corporations and individuals who have managed over time to insert the principle of one dollar/one vote into the legal framework of conducting the election process,” he said.
The result is widespread cynicism, with the United States having among the lowest voter turnout in the world.
“Elections at the local and state level, where corporate money is not as heavily invested, have a better chance at representing the popular will, as long as activist groups are well organized in getting voters to the polls,” Sussman said.
However, he said, first things first.
“Holding elections is not the first step in the establishment of democracy, it is the last,” Sussman said. “What precedes it is the provision of jobs, universal higher education and health care, decent housing, quality public schooling, good wages, protected labor organizations and the like, which provide the underpinnings of meaningful elections.”
‘Citizenship requires us to act — and not just once’
Sometimes the smaller the position, the greater the impact. Shortell said voters should look down the midterm ballot to races beyond Congress.
“It’s very easy when the news is focused nationally to feel like you don’t have power, but in fact, a lot of what happens in terms of government happens locally. You have a lot more power there.”
“Voting is one of the most effective remaining tools to try to prevent the emergence of authoritarianism,” he said. “Elections and voting, when they are open, are effective ways to constrain leaders.”
Whatever happens, Chaichi said it’s important to stay involved and not surrender to despair.
“Knowing what it’s like for the people who would continue the fight if I didn’t show up keeps me going,” she said. “It’s better than the alternative — laying down and taking it or just not being here anymore. If we give up, that’s the end. We’re all relying on each other.”
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This article appears in April 15, 2026.