No, apathy towards politics is because politics is very, very boring.
Active involvement in politics means standing out in the street in the rain handing out leaflets to people who aren't interested or only take one because you are their neighbour, and who look embarrassed while they do so. Then the candidate goes home trying to think of something original to put in a leaflet just in case someone without a normal level of cynicism thinks he might actually mean it, and wondering why no one else in the local branch will help him write it. The main reward for all this effort, apart from losing touch with his own family, is for passers by to say "aye, well you're all the same", which he tries to deny, while knowing that actually, yes they are, and one man on a council / committee/ parliament is as impotent as the man who empties the bins in the evening.
All the politicians I know encourage voting, because that is how they get votes (well, obviously) and try to encourage interest in politics so that people will turn up and vote. However fundamentally, politics is very, very boring.
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