Giving Compass' Take:

• According to surveys, more and older citizens in their 60s and 70s are becoming disengaged with politicians and the political process. 

• What are the harms in this generation of citizens becoming uninvolved in the political space? 

• Read the Aspen Institute's piece on how civic engagement helps societal growth. 

We hear a lot about how today's divisive and contentious politics are sparking a surge of engagement with public affairs, as evidenced by mass marches and demonstrations, tumultuous town hall meetings and packed campaign events. But, there is another side to the story.

While some citizens seem more fired up than ever, there is growing anecdotal evidence that others have reached a point of overload. Some candidates for office are reporting that when they knock on doors, more people are just not interested in their message. Period. Doesn't matter the party, doesn't matter the message -- just no, thank you.

A particularly troubling aspect of this is that among those who seem to be checking out of the political process are a lot of people in their 60s and 70s.

Probing those attitudes reveals a deep disappointment with politics today. Many people feel profoundly let down by politicians, politics, and legislative partisanship and gridlock.

They are beginning to decline to participate -- or even vote -- because often they feel they have no one to vote for. In simple terms, they are disengaging from the talk, hype, shouting, dysfunction, rudeness, anger and untruths that abound in the political system today.

It's safe to say that social media and its rabid partisanship may be part of the problem. A survey last year, conducted by Radius Global Market Research for the health-care website CareDash, revealed that 39 percent of Americans were avoiding social media to reduce their anxiety because of political ... stuff.

If this civic disengagement becomes a more predominant trend, it has profound implications -- particularly for local governments. The participation in community life by local residents is perhaps the greatest point of differentiation among the various levels of government.

Read the full article about disengaged citizens by Gord Hume at Governing Magazine