The record-low election turnout in Vermont's 2014 general election should be a huge wake-up call to Governor Peter Shumlin and other Vermont political leaders.
The fact that the majority of people stayed home is a referendum against the status quo. It shows that people have lost faith in the political process and its relevance to their lives.
More than 60,000 Democratic voters who voted in 2010 did not participate in 2014. In 2010, anyone affected by the health-care crisis had an extremely compelling reason to come out to vote. Politicians had laid out a vision for universal health-care and promised to follow through with it.
Yet by 2014, the change many people hoped for had not materialized. Very little had been done to make universal health-care a reality, and the lives of working families had not improved.