John Dewey

Perhaps the apathy of the electorate is due to the irrelevant artificiality of the issues with which it is attempted to work up factitious excitement.

The conduct of these callings and others characteristic of our time are decided by science and pseudo-science.

It may be urged that the present confusion and apathy are due to the fact that the real energy of society is now directed in all non-political matters by trained specialists who manage things, while politics are carried on with a machinery…

If there is a public, what are the obstacles in the way of its recognizing and articulating itself?

Indifference is the evidence of current apathy, and apathy is testimony to the fact that the public is so bewildered that it cannot find itself.

The significant thing is that familiarity has bred indifference if not contempt.

At times there is a general consensus of sentiment, a definite trend in favor of “progressive legislation” or a desire for a “return to normalcy.” But even then only exceptional candidates get by on any basis of personal responsibility to…

The current runs for or against the party in power and the individual candidate sinks or swims as runs the current.

As a rule, what decides the fate of a person who comes up for election is neither his political excellence nor his political defects.

Even in times of political excitement, artificially accelerated, their opinions are moved collectively by the current of the group rather than by independent personal judgment.

The same lesson is taught by the breakdown of the theory of the responsibility of elected representatives to the electorate, to say nothing of their alleged liability to be called before the bar of the private judgment of individuals.

The public is so confused and eclipsed that it cannot even use the organs through which it is supposed to mediate political action and polity.