Griffin Johnston, 4th period, The Importance of being Politically Informed

            In an article in The New York Times, Lynn Vavreck talks about how voters who choose candidates from different political parties are usually uninformed/uneducated. This group of voters can have a large influence over the outcome of elections; the author states how it is somewhat distressing to know that these voters can be so easily influenced and, sometimes, led astray by the media, celebrities who voice their political views, friends, etc. To test the political knowledge of the people, Vavreck initiated a short quiz to 45,000 people. The quiz posed questions regarding the political parties and job of various prominent political figures (Eric Cantor, Nancy Pelosi, John Roberts, Harry Reid, etc.). Taking the results from the quiz, Vavreck categorized the participants into three tiers of knowledge (the top tier being the most politically informed and the bottom tier the least). In the bottom tier, 12 percent of the participants cast ballots that voted for different candidates of differing political parties in the 2012 election, the second tier, 8 percent, and the top tier only 4 percent split their votes.

            Democracies are most effective when the vast majority of voters are adequately informed and well educated. Part of our duty as Americans is to be politically informed about the people running for office and about current events. In this age of extensive easily accessible resources and information, informing ourselves is made much more effortless. Even with the bias in the media, knowing that there is bias and being able to view both perspectives enables us to be more effective citizens and voters. However, when there is a large population of voters who do not know who they are voting for and are too susceptible to the influences of celebrities political views or their close friends views or unreliable sources, there is a greater likelihood of someone gaining office who is not qualified and/or does not have the nation’s best interest at heart. Even though we are one person out of millions, each person’s efforts to make themselves more educated helps our nation to become better by putting smarter and more qualified people in office. Lastly, though Vavreck was referring to uninformed voters, and though a person’s political party is obviously important, a person should not determine their vote solely due to their political party. A candidates party does help voters know, in a general sense, what positions they hold on important, current issues. However, the decision to vote for someone should be based on whether you think that the candidate will help the country the best while in office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/upshot/the-power-of-political-ignorance.html?ref=us