Political Reform Essay

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The consequence of having trends of declining political participation, declining party affiliation, and growing cynicism about government is that we now have a significantly large population that has been politically exhausted for quite some time. This has led to more extreme rhetoric in political parties as those who might have a more moderate political voice have left because they feel that they no longer have a voice in the political process. Combined with new technology of media, we have seen the ultimate consequence of these trends in the 2016 election in which a candidate that campaigned on extreme rhetoric won the election despite a significant majority of the population voting against him. With the growing unpopularity Donald Trump’s …show more content…

Americans need to believe that they can in fact make a difference in politics. By getting behind candidates they truly believe in, Americans can bring about the change they want. This means Americans must educate themselves about their elected officials so that they do not become complacent with who is in office. To better educate themselves about their candidates, the second step to reform is that Americans should demand that their media presents them with objective news coverage of politics and consume as much media they can from different news sources that may have varying political biases. That way Americans can understand where the other side of the political spectrum is coming from and partisan politics can decline. The third step to reform would be to make constitutional amendments to make the election process more democratic for the American people. The election of the President is the only elected federal position in which the American people do not directly vote, and has given significant power to states that do not hold the majority population of the country. Presidential candidates spend more time campaigning in these swing states instead of campaigning to the rest of the American people. Other ways to make the election process to be more democratic would be to election days to be a federal holiday so that Americans can take time in their day go vote, as well making stricter laws governing campaign

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