One might think that in the United States, that it deeply cares about educating all of its people, and that first and foremost it understands well the vital importance of having an informed electorate, so proven by their knowledge of the issues of the day, their engagement to those issues, and their follow-up by voting for their preferences based upon a reasoned analysis of propositions, candidates, and current issues.
In fact, that may well be the way that it ought to be in the United States, but it isn’t the way that things are in reality. To wit, it needs to be acknowledged that there are huge swaths of Americans that are ill-educated, and who are for all intents and purposes barely functionally literate, but still have enfranchisement to vote, which quite obviously makes it easier for those in the political field to take advantage of those that do not have the ready capacity to really understand or to examine the issues of the day, and thus are appealed to on an emotional level or whatever gets it done through surveys that indicate what particular propaganda will best resonate with those that don’t represent a truly informed electorate.
To believe, somehow, that it’s good for American representative government, that so many don’t really know the current issues, and thus couldn’t elucidate a coherent answer to an interlocutor inquiring why they are voting one way, represents not America at its finest, but rather America at its most vulnerable. In short, we should desire that each of us to have the ability to think and to discuss the issues of the day, where we actually are capable of coming up with a deduction or conclusion that makes sense, because we are able to properly discern the information so provided to us, and have reflected upon it. In actuality, that seems to be something that a subset of the population is capable of doing, for it seems like the majority is not all that informed, and further are relatively easy to sway or manipulate, which doesn’t bode well for this nation whatsoever.
So too, all this talk about misinformation, disinformation, and so on, is far easier to counteract from those that are well educated, informed, and motivated to ascertain the truth of the matter, as contrasted to those that simply are gifted at reading headlines or social media posts, and care not a whit to search into matters that should make a difference to them.
In actuality, an informed electorate is the very type of people that we want as many of our citizens to be, because those that are engaged in the issues of the day are the same that can make a real difference through their voting, and through their concerns of what should or should not be done to help make this nation to be not only truly under the consent of the governed, but to represent the people in a way and manner that provides opportunity, justice, equality, and fairness to all, and when that is not the case, the disappointing result is what we see today.