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The Role of Social Media in American Politics essays
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The Chartist movement (a working class political movement) in 1840 believed “People had no one else but themselves to blame for the actions of their politicians” (Nash). What Mr. Nash and the chartist movement believe couldn’t be more on the spot. This country has gotten to the point where people find it hard to walk down their street to the elementary school where the voting polls are, and take a few minutes to cast a vote. A vote that millions of people around the world wish they were able to have them selves. With all the political suffrage that goes on through the world and people forced to love a leader, these no-shows should be thankful to live in a democracy. A place where elections aren’t rigged and the people are truly heard. This is why the topic of voting turnout needs to be raised. Also it’s very annoying to hear people complaining about our President when they did not even vote. It’s a very bad habit to not vote, and it needs to change with the younger citizens of this country. Helping younger people see the importance of voting needs to start with technological and educational ideas while expanding all the way to social event ideas. Only then will America’s ability to find answers to voting turnout increase. It’s very unsettling to know that there was a six percent decrease in young voters (ages 18-29) in the 2012 election compared to 2008 (Circle Youth data). In 2007 the National Conference of State Legislatures publicly released a report and data set on voter turnout in democratic countries. This is a quote from that report titled Getting out the Vote, “It should be noted that in 1972, 18-year-olds were added to the eligible voting population, thus decreasing the percentages. Nonetheless, voter tu... ... middle of paper ... ... May 13, 1994 did finally rule in favor of the Chinese Assistance programs in New York, but it should have not even been an issue the first time around. All of these proposals with far out ideas can work, they just need a tiny spark of confidence from the government. No matter what though, the bottom line is people have to want to vote and make a contribution to this country. It’s a right that American citizens need to embrace and all of these ideas are just a way to give us a little kick in the behind to get up and do it. It’s the 21st century and the government needs to get with the times and start connecting with the young vote. Elections can be won and lost over this issue, so the bottom line is; we are consumed with so much technology, we just need to integrate a voting aspect into it. Then who knows, maybe young America might not be so selfish after all.
All in all, compulsory voting can seriously help out the United States of America. Although, forcing people to vote will make a lot more ignorant people vote for no reason, it will help get rid of those people by making them more intelligent in the world of politics, it will help rid fraudulent votes, and will help people realize that there are many more required things that are less important than voting. Compulsory voting will
There is a way that is already put in use to increase voter turnout in Australia is to make voting mandatory. People in Australia are forced to vote or they will be fined, or even jailed if they do not vote repeatedly. It is very effective in term of improving voter turnout; however, there is still some argument against it. One of them being people would only vote because they have to, so they are ignorantly voting for the candidates just to be done with it. I completely agree with this idea. The voter turnout can be really high, but it would be meaningless if the people just vote to escape from the punishments. Yale Law School Professor Stephen Carter also suggested that, instead of punishing people do not vote, we should reward people who vote. It is the same with the mandatory voting. I think it will only be effective in increasing the voter turnout, but the results will not. People should vote voluntarily for the best and fair outcome. To have more people voting, I believe we should take a look at why people do not vote. We must assure people that if everybody thinks their vote does not count, then no one would vote. We should be able to change their attitude about their own votes. If people cannot vote because they are busy with work or schools, we should have a national day off on the election day. By doing so, much more people will be able to participate in voting. There should also be
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
It has become a growing trend in the 1990's that college students do not take advantage of their right to vote and to take part in the democratic system. In fact, only one out of every three individuals in the 18 to 24 age group cast a ballot in the 1996 presidential election. College students ranked as the least represented demographic" (http://www.idsnews.com/ news/2000.07.31/campus/2000.07.31.students.html). Students do not want to vote for many different reasons. They are considered apathetic by society, but this isn't really the case. In actuality, students feel that politicians turn them away. Most importantly, students do not vote because they feel that they can't make a difference. Also, distance from their voting districts has been a problem for many people. Another major issue for students is that they are just too busy and don't make time to follow politics closely. In polling freshman at Manhattanville College, I discovered that all these are true. The effects of this may be catastrophic. Politicians need to start including and interesting the people of my generation in order to keep democracy thriving.
When younger people register to vote, they tend to get more involved for the the next election to come. During this past election there were fewer turnouts than ever, people didn’t go out to vote because they either didn’t like any of the candidates or they just weren’t sure of who to choose. These teens are getting more educated about elections because of schools and the classes that they take. Making this change can also make a difference in the voter turnout for elections to come because the voters will be more involved and make a difference in the future. There was one person who voted no on letting ungerage voters, Fred Schultz.
How many times have you found yourself complaining about the government? It isn’t hard to, as the government never generates decisions that everyone agrees with, but what have you done about it? Well, if the answer is nothing, you aren’t alone. Only about 37% of eligible American citizens voted in the important 2014 election (McDonald). Fixing the issue of low voter turnout won’t be a one-step process, but it has the potential to transform American politics forever. American citizens should be required to vote in all general elections to greatly increase voter turnout in order to increase the influence of democracy and improve American politics.
As citizens we have, one of the biggest rights there is the right to vote. We gain this right at age eighteen. This is really our civic duty also. This gives us a say in how we live are life. By voting, you are helping make what comes of this country. It gives you a chance to have a voice in matters that will affect your life. The only way for change to happen is people getting out and voting. People should educate themselves on the candidates before they go out to vote. This way they know what the candidate is all about first. They should vote for the person and not the party. There has been talk about making voting mandatory. “Mandatory voting would make elections truly valid” (Liu, 2012). This should be something that is more looked into and would be great way of actually getting everyone involved in voting. If the rest of the population would vote that, can there would be more changes quickly. This would have the political
Democracy demands for its citizens to participate, which includes voting. With a majority of the nearly three hundred million adult citizens in the United States not even showing up to often at elections, from local to federal, the bureaucracy on Capitol Hill seems to retain the largest vote. The American system is a revolution of
The first part of this plan is education. Many people don’t really see being involved in politics as being essential for their survival; I think otherwise. I took economics and government in college and I felt that the class was too short
In the 1988 presidential election between George Bush and Michael Dukakis, 91,602,291 American people showed up to vote. Now that seems like a lot of people, but what you don't realize is the 91,050,000 registered voters did not vote in that election. This 50.15% voter turnout was the lowest in sixty-four years, falling nearly 20% short of voter turnout in most all other industrialized countries. Many people argue that this low turnout is due to voter's lack of concern. Many Americans claim that voting is useless because they cannot change the government. On the other hand millions of other voters disagree and prove it by voting every election, whether it be national or local. They do this because they truly believe that their vote does count. There are four reasons that a person should vote. One, voting is what a democracy is all about. Two, The entire system would collapse if no one voted. Three, voting is the only way you can be sure that your voice will be heard. And four, voting is simply important in itself.
The American voting turnout is incredibly below other developed democracies. This is becoming a huge problem. Not just because the majority of people are not voting, but because the majority of people are unrepresented. The people who are choosing not to be represented are moderates which are necessary for to maintain the political balance and avoid gridlocks in the government. They choose not to to vote because they feel apathetic to the issues that are being discussed. We have a issues based way of campaigning in America and we tend focus on only a select few issues like abortion or gay rights. Those who are not worried about the specific issues don't vote because they feel that these are the only points of concern.We need to step away from
As voter turnout flucuates upwards and otherwise, we as americans are forced to consider the following; whether to keep the minimum age of 18, or lower it to 16. While there are potential issues with lowering the age, there are also ways we could benefit, such as giving more citizens a say in the way society is managed. Lowering the voting age would also allow for young people to balance the ages of voting citizens. A possible downside to lowering the age could be that, at an earlier age than normal, people may get discouraged about politics, and stop voting altogether.
"From 1948 to 2012, voter participataion in presidential elections changed very little." This quote is from an article in wich a person argues that the voting age should not change. In the article the author states that in the year 2012, only 62% of the population voted. the author aknowledges the fact voter turnout is low, however, he/she also states that decreasing the voting age would actually make this percentage even lower. The author backs the statement by providing information from the U.S Census Bureau report, stating that "only 38% of voters in the 18-24 age group voted in 2012". This side of the argument believes that instead of adding to the voter population, we should focus on increasing "participation from existing voters".
The power lies in our hands with our ability to vote and we need to take more advantage of that. Many people complain about how we don’t like the government but we don’t go out and vote to try to change what we don’t like. Many people believe that our votes don’t matter or don’t count, other people either don’t like the candidates or don’t have special interest in the issues that are up for vote. With whatever
All that can really be seen is what appears before ourselves. What we see on billboards, television, or radio show constantly the views of a new runner for politics whom proclaims what he or she wishes to accomplish. Listening to it, one can create a thought of why did they choose that topic for an argument? Today not all people vote so the ones who do are the people these “runners” focus on. Why would they fight to create increased pay to schools if all the voters are the elderly? Why not focus upon retirement benefits or healthcare? As citizens we have complaints on how the government manages our money and yet we do not do anything about it. Voting gives a chance. If certain groups grew in votes different ideas would be made for these “runners”. Say the young adults started to vote a lot more. We could have schooling benefits, less tuition fees, higher education levels, and possibly a large increase in jobs. One United Kingdom publisher explains, “If you vote, the campaigners urge, the politicians will have to listen to you and things will change.”(Kirkup, The Telegraph). Also youth have the longest time, and live what the country becomes. To conclude, voting doesn’t take long and doesn’t require almost any effort. All it requires just an open mind and yet people just do not realize this opportunity. Right now we could be living in the richest most opportunistic country if everyone could understand what can become of our views. Life could be looked forward not