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It's a presidential election year, and most political junkies are following every gyration of the upcoming rematch between President Biden and former President Trump.
But a reality that political obsessives may be missing is how little attention many of their countrymen are paying to the day-to-day drama that unfolds in Washington, D.C., in state capitals and on the campaign trail.
A poll recently released by Gallup found that only 32% of Americans pay close attention to politics.
This is actually an improvement over the 1980s and 1990s, when the number was below 30%. The poll found that 41% of Americans follow politics "somewhat closely" and the remaining 27% follow politics not very closely or not at all.
Perhaps part of this can be explained by something former Republican operative Stuart Stevens said in the latest issue of The New Republic: "One of the greatest gifts of a democratic civil society is the freedom not to think about government..."
But it's also helpful to keep in mind something the Greek statesman Pericles once said: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."
-- Herald-Standard