The Importance Of Politically Active

“The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center” (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-in-the-lower-classes/). Today’s adults stating that they are in the lower class are most likely to have had a rough life growing up, and can now not escape the lower class. Social class is the idea of “a division of a society based on social and economic status” (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/social-class). Social class has the greatest impact on who a person turns out to be and what decisions they make because those

Many scholars believe that falling civic organization membership and the general decline in our Social Capital has negatively impacted voter turnout.” (Kaufmann. 145) To summarize, people in the United States are “less involved” with other groups and other people as a whole, so it is only logical to feel they would be less involved or interest in our political and governmental future.

Political inactivity on the part of young Americans stems from one fundamental source -- a general cynicism of the American political process. This disdain for politics is further perpetuated by a lack of voter education and a needlessly archaic voting procedure that creates barriers to voting where they need not exist. While many of these existing problems can be rectified with relative ease through the implementation of programs such as Internet voting and better voter education, such programs create only a partial solution.

Verba and his co-authors examine the import of participation, both voting and non-voting, in our American society. According to their argument, the typical citizen activist “tend[s] to be drawn disproportionately from more advantaged groups–to be well-educated and well-heeled and to be White and male” (Verba et al., 1995: 231). Indeed, Verba et al. explore participation along both gender and racial lines and concludes that both women and minorities are comparatively less active than men, especially white men, who stand peerless both in terms of affiliation with a political organization, contributing to a campaign, contacting their Representatives, and more direct forms of participation like voting.

There are many more ways people can participate in politics other than by voting. In the United States, the second highest form of activity is by participating in community work in local communities. The

[paragraph 1…. why civic and political participation is important, introduce the person you believe deserves a holiday]

A persons social, educational and/or economic background can affect how or they vote. A person’s social background can affect the way they vote by the fact that their social background defines how one was raised. You can be raised to be or think a certain way. People raised into a family of wealth will tend to have a better educational and economic background which also affects the voting turnout. According to Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt, authors of, “American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials 2015-2016 Edition,” “the more [educated a voter is, the more likely they are to vote].” This indicates that people who have been well educated and have gone

As politics and government becomes more complex and involved, more effort is required to keep up with and understand it. As a result, many Americans have lost touch with current events and happenings. Therefore, when election time rolls around, many people lack enough information to develop an educated opinion and support a candidate with their vote, so they just do not vote at all. This lack of information is also related to the belief that one vote will not matter. People believe that their vote will not count, and are therefore following the news less and becoming out of touch with public affairs and politics (Is the System Broken?”). This lack of information is also more strongly apparent among the younger voting population. When interviewed

the connection from contact and voter turnout may be misleading. Also, the sample size was small for the study, leading to question the unreliability and perhaps overstating the outcome of the mobilization campaigns. This study did find that for competitive races the likelihood of voter turnout increased 5% and those voters were likely to contribute money. They also determined that those running the campaigns were most likely to target those who had resources, or were affiliated with parties, and had strong social networks. They concluded that those with certain associations were easier to be mobilized to vote.

Hypothesis 1: Voters with higher education (which generally results in higher household incomes) are more likely to vote.

How much does socioeconomics really impact a person’s partisanship and does this change over time? When it comes to an individual’s political identity what is that based on? An individual directs their attention to the political party that best serves their needs and is a close representation of what they believe in. An individual would not vote for a political candidate that does not fit their correct political mold. Every person identifies differently politically and this could change over time depending on what the respective parties bring to the table. There are many factors that can make up an individual’s party identification. For example, this could be engraved in what the parties are actually projecting to be the common

There are six types of voter participation but voting is by far the most common form of political participation. People participate in elections because of their strong sense of civil duty they have but many people tend not to because political parties aren’t as forceful in getting it’s members to vote than in other places. People that vote are usually educated, older, and have a higher income, Throughout the history of the United States o America, many of the citizens have been suppressed in regarding their right to vote. Even though most of the citizens, that are old enough, are eligible to vote there is still low voter turn out. Low voter turnout is most commonly explained by apathy among citizens and problems with registration. Campaigns become more personalistic when they are for primary elections, there is a reliance on the candidate’s image, and there is decline in party identification. There is a lot of strategy involved in political campaigns. The overall strategy should be to appeal to voters in a party for that party’s nomination even if it means becoming more radical so that way you can attract the main group of that party. Once the nomination is secured it is better to have more centrist views to convince those of the opposite party whose votes are wavering, to vote for the candidate. The main reasons that

The movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a good example of how a political participation can help that state to achieve their goals. In the movie, Smith Jefferson is the main character that is appointed by the state governor Hopper to replace a Senator who died recently. The movie presents a society in which the people are fully practicing their rights by involving themselves in the political process. However, compared to the movie, present-day societies are more involved in political participation; because people are more willing to learn about politics, and can be much more educated than the people presented in the movie. The similarities between contemporary political participation and the Jefferson movie are that people’s participation

B. What other conditions contribute to low voter turnout? Also look at “America in Perspective” to answer this question. –the requirement of voter registration

People have to take a stance against larger issues regardless if they have an “interest” in politics. After Mueller comes a different author, Paul Rogat Loeb and The Active Citizen. Paul’s work represents the opposite ideal of Mueller. He talks about how more people need to be involved, and why there aren’t more already involved. He offers an explanation to this anomaly with Learned Helplessness, a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a persistent failure to succeed. Loeb argues that this is from American culture persistently putting down ideas and making citizens doubt themselves and their ideas particularly relating to politics and I agree. There are so many great thinkers that are demoralized by the idea that what they have to say is not true and I don’t think society should be that way. People’s economic circumstances also play a role into both author’s philosophies. If someone is born into a poorer community then they are going to have less options to read about news or watch things on TV, or even have enough time to keep up with politics because of working two or three jobs. When Mueller says people aren’t involved in politics because they are not interested he’s not telling the whole truth. The economic divide is also prominent in the portrayal and interests in