Political Ignorance And Its Impact On Politics

Then-current president Theodore Roosevelt was extremely active on the campaign trail, promoting Taft’s name with great fervor. Roosevelt and Taft’s alliance is one of the earliest and most significant examples of politicians working together to reach individual goals. Taft would benefit by receiving the Presidential Office, and Roosevelt would have his policies continue through the new administration. Over the course of American History, there has been a pattern of politicians collaborating for a somewhat secretive or deceitful goal. Throughout the entire century following Progressive Era reforms, corruption has found its footing again in American Politics; the efforts towards reducing corporate involvement or individual meddling in the political process have not accomplished their goal. Corruption continued, sometimes by the individuals who spoke so vehemently against practices of that nature. This essay will explore the triumphs and failures of Progressive Reform, using Roosevelt’s behaviour during Taft’s presidency

The main plot of the movie, Mr. Smith goes to Washington is a conflict between Jeff Smith, Senator Paine, and Jim Taylor. A senator of a state passed away causing a new senator needing to be appointed. Jim Taylor a local publicist who had pull around the Senate, pressured the governor to select Jefferson Smith. He was appointed as the new Senator of the State, because everyone thought that he was incompetent, naive, and would not get in their way. However when Smith passed a clever bill that got in the way of Jim Taylor’s scandal, Jim and Senator Paine tried to do whatever they could to get Jeffrey expelled from the Senate.

“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is about Jefferson Smith who is a boy ranger and new senate member due to the old senator dieing, when Mr.Smith gets to dc he meets his assistant Clerissa Sanders and his father's friend senior Macpherson, a respected senator among the senate. When Smith first gets in into office he is interviewed by a bunch of news reporters, and when they interview him they make him look stupid and like a joke for everybody to see, when Smith sees what they did he punches everybody who's reading a newspaper and goes to the press headquarters where he tells the press that they should tell everybody the truth and, they tell him that his fit to be a senator because he's too unexpected in government and should not be fit tp senator, Mr.Smith actually takes their word for and starts to put a bill together.

In Frank Capra’s 1939 people’s fable “Mr. Smith goes to Washington “Jefferson Smith, a young, idealistic, and naïve hero from a Midwestern state is thrust into public notoriety through a chance course of events. His journey will compel him to contemplate the veracity of the political foundation which supports American democracy and confront the corruption which seeks to erode it.

This docility and willingness to vote according to the older Senators was most likely caused by the new Senators’ fear of the political bosses. Mr. Smith, however, was sheltered from knowing that the political bosses even existed and, as a result, was not afraid to stand up for his beliefs. Mr. Taylor, a typical political boss of Smith’s time, had extreme power in his state and was able to tilt the public opinion of Senator Smith. He did this through his control of the state media and connections within the government. Taylor concocted evidence with the help of his government connections alleging that Smith owned the property intended for the boy’s camp and was only promoting the camp bill so that he could sell his own property to the government at a high price. Taylor then publicized these false accusations against Smith in the newspapers that he controlled, thus persuading public opinion and ultimately causing Smith to be accused of wrongdoing by a Senate committee. Throughout this entire entourage, Smith was too inexperienced and naive to stand up against Taylor’s political machine and resorted instead to crying at the Lincoln Memorial. Smith only returned to the Senate after Saunders convinced him that he should fight for his rights. This situation ultimately proved once again that Senator Smith was too naive to be an effective Senator. Smith did not realize that the other Senators were inclined to believe the accusations against his character, and therefore,

Taylor, a special interest group member, controlled everything Senator Paine did until he finally decided to change. This denotes the impact that wealth can have in the government. The system is designed so that things such as pork barreling can pass and sometimes need to pass in order for a law to go through. This creates a system of lies and corruption, with members of the Senate not looking out for the national good. Senators are forced to focus on improving their own district because it is all they can do to ensure re-election. The most successful Senators do this because it gains short-term approval from their district and gets them a future vote. This is a method of maintaining their career, and is something they are in some cases forced to do. If someone like Mr. Smith came in and was consistently free of corruption, people would vote for him based on his truthfulness.

The overwhelming lack of trust in the government and uninformed voters is covered in Ch1 of WTP. Harold Lasswell said, "Politics is the struggle over who gets what and how". A direct effect is an uneducated voter and even worse a higher number of people that just will not vote to show that they do not approve nor care. The results of this misguided thinking are often more and more people left behind when the pie is sliced… who gets what and how. The trust in the Government continues to decline because people feel helpless to what laws are passed and who is elected. This brings self-justification to the ideas of' "we are losing out rights and becoming blind sheep." Yet, in this information age, the lack of responsibility of research and footwork for information will cost "them/us" to continue to be absent when it's time to be heard. At the speed of the free internet, we have access to just about anything, yet it is difficult to find reliable and natural information for politics and the news without a little effort, yet many can find their favorite song before it comes out. Personally, I feel this strain as well, but I understand that "I" can make a small difference but "US or WE" can make change by investing a little

In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Senator Smith is called upon to step up and serve his state through representation in the United States Senate. As a proud citizen of his country, Smith says that he will honor the appointment and, before long, has been whisked off to the nation’s capitol. There, he is introduced to the corruption and double-sidedness of politics. Regardless of the external stimuli, Smith never strays from his belief that the Senate should do what it was created to do and he wants to teach the country’s children the same thing. While writing his bill for a children’s camp, he says that “‘liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books’” (Mr. Smith

Corruption in campaigns, in the modern sense of candidates being swayed by corporate influence, was a result of the changes brought on by the Industrial and Technological Revolutions. These revolutions created millionaire captains of industry whose immense influence and power held sway over the future of the United States both economically and politically. Elections and campaigning methods drastically changed as technology allowed candidates to reach voters through new kinds of advertising. Gone were the days when being born in a log cabin was the key to door of the Oval Office, the effectiveness of a candidate’s campaign now correlated with the amount of money backing it. The early twentieth century also saw the continuance of the widespread corruption, particularly in the railroad industry, but also in political campaigns, that had plagued the late nineteenth century before it. The significance of this is that, while corruption had no doubt existed prior to this period, the sheer scale of this new corruption and the magnitude of the resulting political scandals was unlike anything America had witnessed before. Muckraking writer Lincoln Steffens, in his book The Shame of the Cities, described the problem of the political sphere of his time by stating: “politics is business. That 's what 's the matter with it. That 's what 's the matter with everything.” (Steffens 2) Something clearly needed to be done to stem the rising corruption and action came as the progressive movement

“One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don’t go into government,” Said by Donald Trump, the current President of the United States. Good people do not go into government, but when they do and they begin to do things that are best for the country they are hated, ostracized, shamed, and criticized. This book makes me feel like there is something seriously wrong with the way our Senate and House of Representatives are run and how the politicians make decisions for the people. Three examples of this are John Quincy Adams, Edmund G. Ross, and George W. Norris. Each was ostracized by the senate or people in a different way for what nowadays they are praised for.

In order for a government to be run successfully we need to have voters who are informed and up to date with the current events and what the politicians have in store for us. I do not believe voters do know enough to run an efficient government. Even though there is a percentage of people out there who are knowledgeable the unknowledgeable outweighs them. To be efficient voters must possess knowledge in judgement and skills for the government to be run effectively. Voters

This Federalist arguments on the limitations of mass participation also has its merits in a modern context, where voters are often indifferent, uninformed, and easily manipulated in an increasingly technological world. What Fishkin defines as “rational ignorance,” in which citizens are not motivated to go out of their way to learn and form rational opinions on policies, supports Madison’s fears. One aspect of rational ignorance illustrates the tendency of voters to vote only on policy issues relevant to them. For instance, farmers under a mass participatory system may vote only on issues related to agriculture, while remaining ignorant on other issues

“…defects of human nature.” Whether it’s a terrible representation by a corrupt politician or an economic downfall, civilization as a whole is doomed to be overpowered by imperfect and sometimes immoral governments. Politicians are liars, cheaters, and confirm that the government is not honest to the people whom they rule over; in result, when things get bad the government gets the blame. They are definitely liable for the messes they create! “He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.” (page 127) Jack assumes he is all important and he’s all that matters. He lies to himself just as the government deludes the minds of the nation. A society of dishonesty exists! Change the defects!

The Democratic Republic which the people of the USA live under today follows principles put in place by The Constitution. This is an example of a political text written to convey the ideals of government. Similarly two historically significant texts, The Federalist No.10 written by James Madison in 1787 addressed to the state of New York and The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke ( an English philosopher) in 1689 make complex assertions about the fundamentals of a government. While Madison and Locke make heavily similar claims on the importance of government in the protection of its members as well as the tenacious emphasis on majority vote, they don’t quite see eye to eye when it comes to the behaviors of bodies in a government.. Their two ideologies form parallel arguments that do happen to build off of each other as well as oppose, (the former more than the latter) while also giving a well rounded understanding of some of the building blocks of government.

Although our nation’s government relies on the fundamentals of liberal democracy, it still has many flaws. Articles written by Francis Fukuyama share a clear message suggesting that America’s political institutions are decaying and its flaws will not be fixed unless we have good leadership within the government that yields good policies. It is still not too late to make reformations in the system. Today, US citizens share a distrust for the inner workings of our government, and through the years, there are many things that must change. Although our government is able to withstand failures right now, it may cause an expansion of problems that will cost us indefinitely. The existence of interest groups has caused an exponential increase in the elite control of the system, thus creating people’s lack of trust for the government.