The Issue of Voters’ Political Ignorance

After a war that made every war pale in comparison, many a country was devasted, and the loser suffered the greatest. Though not due to the loss, no more so because of what the future held for it. As the years passed a man who had fought in the great war, started to rise slowly making his way up through a political party not many knew about or cared about as there were many other worries they had, and many other parties. He rose until he was at the head of the party. Then he started to act, gathering more and more supporters. Until he made a violent act on the government of that time, which failed. He was imprisoned and in prison, he wrote a book, a book that if had been read by the masses and thoroughly understood would have prevented his eventual rise. He then changed his tactic to a more peaceful way and encountered great success, very quickly he rose to be at the head of the government. He fixed many of the issues of his country but also brought much worse ones, his name was Adolf Hitler.

So, do voters try to get more information on those they vote for, or do they merely vote because of the possibly false information that gets thrown at them in coming elections? This is a question many politicians know the answer to and try extremely hard to get voters to elect them into office. Yet the information that is given to those that are electing these people is often filled with falseness and lies, meaning that voters do not elect very smartly. Political Ignorance is a problem in the U.S. and potentially the world because of citizens do not care about politics, their believe it does not matter (their vote), and believe it to be too complex to truly grasp.

Whilst a very common and surprisingly well-known thing in the world of politics, political ignorance is rarely addressed. This is largely in due part to citizens who have no care for politics. The common voter does not make a very large effort if any, to delve deeper into the world of politics and the politicians that they can vote for. These voters do not care about the world of politics and do not try to further themselves in the knowledge of it, yet because of this has the world seen many dictators rise and take power. While this is highly unlikely to happen in the United States there is still much danger. With citizens uncaring of the politics they remain ignorant to that of foreign powers, and domestic issues. The 2016 presidential election is a prime example of that. The citizens of the U.S, and most likely other countries, were very divided on this issue. They merely watched as it come along and even now, they more resemble fans of a sports team than citizens backing on candidate or the other. As such they do not take it upon themselves to further their knowledge of the policies of our government or the policies that each candidate support. Most of the citizens in the United States do not even attempt to learn about our democratic nation or its functions. From this apathetic nature comes reckless voting that’s based almost solely on what they see from the barrage of campaign ads inside of the media, which have been edited to only gain more voters. Meaning that it is generally filled with false information or information that seems positive but is negative in truth. Yet the citizens do not know that because of their ignorance of how the policies work, or the current climate of both Congress and foreign affairs.

The belief that their vote does not matter or that the outcome of any of the elections matters is very similar to the apathetic citizens, but it is not the same. Voters just do not vote as much as they have in the past. As they believe that a single vote out of a nation does not matter, which is rather hard to disprove as it is correct, however too many of the United States’ citizens share this thought. The turnout of voters has reflected this. Fewer and fewer people have been voting. They simply believe that the few that do divulge themselves into the messy world of politics will be able to guide our nation correctly. However, this is a democracy that is run by the will of the nation not the will of less than half of the nation. Though with how the most recent midterm election went, the highest voter turnout in a century, this trend of voter turnout becoming smaller and smaller may very well be erased. The reasoning is the U.S. president, who has made many questionable choices and policies. He is driving voters to use their rights as a citizen of the United States of America on both sides of the political spectrum. As such the problem of voter turnout may be erased for a couple of elections or at least one. However, is something is not done to permanently remove this issue, it will once again come up again. It is an extremely hard one to deal with as there is not much to be done with it. Other than making it mandatory for citizens eligible to vote of course, which is an awful idea that goes against what the country stands for. For now, however, most politicians seem content to let voters stay in their ignorance and belief of their votes do not matter in the elections of the nation

The U.S. government is one that once was the pinnacle of how a country should ‘rule’ their people. Now in today’s world that does not seem to be the case, as more countries seem to have replicated our form of government. Though with some obvious differences. As such shouldn’t it be well known within the U.S. Yet the American government seems to be an enigma to some of its own citizens. The reason is that these Americans do not know about the U.S. government, despite the government doing nothing to hide the happenings that occur within it, apart from military secrets. Which is good as a government, making it more trustworthy. It is the job of the people to use the information that is openly given, yet the people of America do not use the information that other nations hide. Citizens of the United States of America have the right to know of the current debate going on in congress, and sometimes even can watch it live. Some citizens still do not, many do not actually. They rarely know which party has the majority, or who the house speaker is. Which is information that could be acquired extremely easily in today’s world and even in the past, but because of the false belief of the government is a very complex thing people avoid it like a disease.

To fix this ignorance, that has the potential to devastate the country and even the world if it continues, the government could become more centralized. Centralized meaning that our national government would become the only government, or the president would take on many more powers that were previously spread throughout the branches of government. Like how the English Parliament operates. This would fix the problems of apathetic beliefs towards politics, as the president could cause much more problems nationwide than previously (though even now the president can cause many issues to arise) so they want to make sure to rotate them. This however is highly unlikely, and a more proper solution would be to downsize the government and its powers. This would make the government seem less like an impossible labyrinth to navigate and would give the impression of votes matter more.

The issue of voters’ political ignorance is one that always is a second thought due to it being one that is not immediately a danger. If one was to fix it would be a lot better in the long run. Voters' uncaring attitude towards the realm of politics, the believing that their votes do not matter to the election, and the false belief that the government is a challenging thing to learn of, are what cause this to be such a problem in the U.S. The country needs to become educated about our government and politics to prevent someone from gaining too much power, or before the government takes away the free information that they have so graciously given to the citizens of the USA.

Bibliography

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