| Think about that for a minute. These are young adults, most of whom will be able to vote in the next year or so and only 2 out of 10 understand how the government they will have a voice in installing works!
I grew up in a political family, so I guess I got this stuff with my mothers milk, but I am just gobsmacked at those numbers. In the last presidential election 61% or 6 in 10 people eligible to vote actually exercised their franchise. If we assume the ones that understand how their government works all voted (based on the 12th grade numbers) there were still twice as many who voted who don't understand.
It is this kind of lack of knowledge that make candidates like Michele Bachman and Donald Trump (not that he is a real candidate) make a little more sense. If you don't know that way that government works, if you can't name a power that the Congress has or more importantly name those it does not have, then you can believe that someone like Trump could just "make things happen".
It is also how we get into trouble with things like the Bush view of the Unitary Executive. It has been pretty well established that the Executive Branch does not have the expansive level of power that was claimed and exerted by the Bush Administration. We are still having trouble walking it back, but they pushed it to a frankly illegal level. However they got away with it because for the most part the American people did not understand what those who were pitching a fit about it were talking about. The people assume that the president has far more authority than he actually does under the constitution. This lets presidents like George W. Bush abuse the power they do have and grab more.
It also muddies our political discourse. There is a commercial that I keep seeing for a "voice petition" from a group called Repeal It Now! to end the ACA which they call "Obamacare". I don't have a problem with people standing up and being heard but this commercial perpetuates a couple of myths that just make my head want to explode.
In the commercial it talks about how the peoples voice was heard by the House which voted to end "Obamacare", but the Senate has not acted. Then it tells them that they can help "break the tie" and get the Senate to vote the way they want by signing this petition.
We on the Left often say that the Republicans and the Right are lying the Americans people and tear our hair out when the people believe these snake oil salespeople. But is it really any wonder that the people buy into this crap when they don't know how the government works? Or is it any wonder that some on the Left are so chapped that we have not passed a significantly more liberal agenda than we have when there are just as surely a large number of them who don't really understand the process?
Thomas Jefferson believed that a well informed electorate would be critical to a democracy succeeding. I am confident that he did not just mean informed on the issues but also informed of the process. I agree with him completely and think that we must start talking about the process as well as the issues if we are to have an electorate that understands the breadth and limits of Congressional and Presidential power.
Not being one to point out a problem without offering a solution I am announcing that I am going to start a new series either next week or the week after. It will be called Sausage Making 101 - The actual process of Legislation. This series is going to go through all the steps in both the House and Senate for a bill to become law.
I expect that most of the folks reading this will already know the basic outlines but I am willing to bet that you and I learn things we really did not know, or are reminded of things that we had forgotten. I hope you'll join me in looking at this process in depth. After all knowing how things work in terms of the process is critically important if we are to affect the outcome.
The floor is yours |
