Polarized Politics - Democracy and the Youth
Democracy's biggest problem is the disconnect between politicians and young voters. The youth are obviously passionate about various things, but the passions they have don't translate into votes. This, in turn, is why politicians don't cater their message towards the youth. Something must be done to combat the downward spiral between our democracy, and the youth.
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1 comment
William WAUGH • almost 13 years ago
Part of what old and young people need to work for is accurate tally of elections. There is no point in tricking young people into thinking their vote will count when it won't. So if the old are to try to prompt the young to get engaged, we, the old, have to inform the young that democracy is not here yet and that everyone has to work to bring it about. And equally important to an accurate tally, is to have a voting system that doesn't split votes, e. g. Approval Voting. I contend that the negative advertising comes about because you can't vote for more than one candidate. The oligarchs tell you how bad one candidate is and there is an implicit message that the only way to vote against that candidate is to vote for a specific other candidate, who turns out to be almost as bad in reality. If you are allowed to vote against the bad candidates by voting for several better ones, the campaigns will have incentive to talk up their policies rather than talk down the opposition.