'At an important crossroads': After Trump's third arraignment, some voters feel fatigued
BOSTON - On the heels of former President Trump's third arraignment in four months, voters in Massachusetts describe feeling "fatigued" and "checked out" of the conversation around national politics.
"It doesn't feel like there is ever going to be much of a change that happens on a national level." said Luke Carter of Brookline. "I know a lot of people my age who are registered but to show up, I'm not sure they would."
Zapporah Young, 37 of Watertown, said as a Black woman, she felt obligated to vote and engage in the political process. "I think some people are fatigued and then there are a lot of us who are fatigued and understand the responsibility that we have to vote," Young said. "I feel like my ancestors died for the right to vote so it is very important that I do that."
Tom Whalen is a presidential historian and a professor at Boston University. Whalen pointed out the United States has been through divisive times before whether it be in the wake of the Watergate scandal or the post-war revelations about Vietnam.
"People's trust in government and the presidency plummeted," said Whalen. "If people in the democracy have no faith in the government or its institutions or, dare I say, the rule of law that democracy is going to wither away and die, and I think we are at an important crossroads right now."
Pattye Comfort is with the non-partisan voter advocacy group League of Women Voters. Comfort had this message for those who feel checked-out of the political process. "Just this last year there was a state representative race in Massachusetts where the challenger unseated a five-year incumbent by one vote," Comfort said.
