The Civic Cost of Choosing Not to Participate in Politics — Featuring Carl Able

About this episode

The episode discusses the importance of political engagement and the consequences of disengagement, featuring insights from Carl Able on civic participation and voting issues.

When people don’t engage in politics, they are giving those in power permission to do whatever they want. Silence is consent. Sean’s Monologue: Political Polarization and Disillusionment Today, Coup Save America is joined by Carl Able, the founder of Crayon Box Politics - a civic-tech and media initiative dedicated to making political information accessible, transparent, and engaging for the public. Sean and Carl begin the episode with a discussion about what it means to be politically disengaged. Carl draws examples from over two decades of service in the marines to show how participating on a community level can be so much more impactful and fulfilling than putting energy into national politics. Does voting really matter? Carl uses the Trump vs. Harris campaign to assure us that turnout makes all the difference. He and Sean talk about barriers to voting. While reluctant to point fingers, Carl does admit that a certain group of people seems “more oriented on election security as a means of election suppression.” They discuss whether voter fraud is really a problem, how voting should ideally happen, and the opposite messages of 1984 and A Brave New World . Carl and Sean go on to…

People in this episode

Host: Sean Edward St. Heart

Guest: Carl Able

Topics covered

• political engagement
• voting barriers
• civic participation
• political polarization
• election security
• community impact

Keywords

• politics
• voting
• civic engagement
• election
• disillusionment
• polarization
• community
• voter fraud

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Crayon Box Politics

Books & works: 1984, A Brave New World