Basic+Outline

· Intro

· Body o Americans lack of knowledge towards basic politics contributes to an ignorance of how their country works o According to Kate O’Beirne “At the height of a campaign, about 70% of voters can’t name their states two Senators (O’Beirne 27). o Publics knowledge is severely lacking in basic information o At the time this article was written, 70 percent of Americans were unaware Congress recently passed a Medicare prescription-drug plan—the largest federal-entitlement expansion in decades (26) § Even though it was written in 2004, it still reflects the common attitude and truth about American public § One of the reasons the public doesn’t know entirely too much is because they are not exposed to all of it §  I.E. – The current health care debate: the public only hears sound bites (key parts of bills that the media highlights) and does not see an entire bill and what it entails, therefore, the public does not know everything about the bill itself · Body 2 o Basic lack of knowledge threatens how democracy works as a whole o According to Merriam-Webster, democracy is a “government by the people; a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections” o Not having knowledge of why/who your voting for, political knowledge, domestic and foreign, can lead to democracy not being effective – voters don’t know why and what their voting for. Wasting a vote. (22) o Three main issues, according to Ilya Somin: not just ignorant to specific policy issues, but about the basic structure of the government and how it operates. Second is that most voters cannot intelligently combine how they feel about issues into basic principles and who they should vote for. Third, the voter’s inability to spot connections those issues have with each other. o Voter/public ignorance severely impairs the public’s knowledge and will to learn more, also impairing their ability to vote effectively and exercise control over their government. o “If voters do not know what is going on in politics, they cannot rationally exercise control over government policy.”

·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Body 3 o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> There is a growing awareness of this stupidity, yet nothing is done about it. o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Mostly American students feel that Americans tend to be ignorant of the world around them §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Becoming exceedingly absorbed in our own pop culture §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22% of Americans had the ability to name all five Simpson family members, 1 in 1,000 could name all five First Amendment freedoms (speech, religion, press, assembly, petition for redress and grievances) o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Rick Shenkman has interesting points that I followed up on with statistics: §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge.” ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 30% of Americans are aware that Roe v. Wade was the case that made abortion legal. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 20% Know how many senators there are §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.” ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> 20% of the American Youth read a paper daily §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: ‘The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.’” §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> “Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests.” §<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears”