Political Ignorance And Its Impact On Politics

One of the issues I am most passionate about is that of money in American politics. Increasing campaign costs, coupled with a decrease in the number of donors contributing to those campaigns, is a disturbing trend which has caused many to feel the need to question the state of our democracy—myself included. The problem of mainstream political corruption and legalized bribery is one that I was made aware of three years ago, and has since become one of the things keeping me up at night most often.

From The Matrix we learn that it is realistic to be skeptical of the world; government is deceitful. Elected officials use their knowledge to make decisions on behalf of ignorant people. Leaders find it incumbent on themselves to make all decisions related to the health, safety and well-being of people whom they rule. Elected officials in contemporary politics view this decision-making as a necessity, thinking that because they are in control and have power, they are the ones who know more than the common

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.

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 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

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

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

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

Few contemporary Americans understand how our country was founded on a radical experiment with a very limited government. The Founding Fathers wanted to create a completely new relationship between the people and their government.

The 1968 election was the beginning to the end of the era of zealous abundance of corruption. Government agency has had mob bosses on the payroll, vise-versa. Smear campaigns backed by “Communist sympathies”, were a political agenda. While, the media controlled the discourse of Washington. Secret campaign committees, political espionage, blackmail, and private budgets were a social norm for a congressional candidate; if a politician had the media’s ear, he would also share the public eye. This led to an age of vice and scandals. To avoid the merciless backlash from the media politicians danced over “bureaucratic red tape”, and left the public to fill in the gaps or remain aloof. The politicians developed a cavalier outlook on the

There once was a young man named Rod. Rod had worked hard for the majority of his life. He was born into a poorer family in Chicago. He took odd jobs growing up and later in life went into politics. His life was looking up he had made a name for himself and decided to run for Governor. He won and was then given a chance to decide who would fill the new president's seat in the senate. Instead of picking a member of his party, or picking the most qualified candidate he decided to accept a bribe, almost like a payment, for the seat. Now one might recognize this story. It’s the story of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois Governor who was impeached from office under an unanimous vote, and imprisoned for 14 years on many charges including corruption.

Most of the mass public isn’t well informed when it comes to electing officials into office. This lack of information is what causes the government to do whatever they please without taking the mass public into consideration. Also most of the public has no clear ideology and don’t have the desire to understand the issues that are not directly related to them. Most

People accept the things that authority figures say and ‘teach’ the world, but nobody is brave enough to question them. Nobody will stick their neck out far enough to feel the sun and be released from the cave. We are held back by our chains because we are too afraid of the things going on around us. These authority figures have made our ignorance feel safe and we refuse to leave. We are so plain that even if we knew the truth, we’d keep it to ourselves and slowly turn it over in our minds, and tuck it away. Our society lives in the dark, and is so ignorant and stubborn that even when people escape, they refuse to try to release us from our chains because they know what they say will never work.

I would have to agree with you, without knowledgeable and aware citizens a well-running government is not an option. I too don't know a lot about our government but I'm hoping to change that. I think that knowing what the candidate elects stand for is important because that is what they will represent in office. I also think that more citizens should know more about our government. Everyone as a citizen has a job which is to vote. Not acknowledging what is going on in our government puts us at risk. That risk is having someone in office that doesn't even know what they are doing.

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.