American responsibility

Angela Guiao
MSMU Class of 2021

(8/2020) Should Americans be politically active? I think the most immediate answer is yes. The United States is a democracy. The laws of our land are dependent on the ability of our elected officials to advocate for the greater population. Not getting involved in politics means not getting involved with the decisions for our future and present needs.

However, in the current climate, it is easy to see why so many have decided either to be overly involved in politics or not involved at all. In fact, in my family, I see a little bit of both.

My younger cousins are very involved in the current political issues circulating society, and they base a lot of what they know off of articles or social media posts. They are much more vocal about the issues they feel passionately about. And they are more active than I ever was when it comes to signing petitions or getting their voices heard.

I would consider myself moderately involved in politics. There is the occasional post or share, but I wouldn’t say I go out of my way to advocate in person. I keep up to date on the political issues that I am concerned with, but I don’t actively look for others who have similar beliefs and look for ways I can get more involved. Sometimes I wish I were more involved, but politics, in my personal opinion, are currently very messy and divisive.

My mom wants nothing to do with politics. And in many ways, I understand why. With the upcoming election so near and with two parties with very different belief systems, it is easy to just want to take a step back way from all the hate.

Hate.

Currently, this is the word I associate most with politics. And I am not talking about one particular side. For certain issues, in my personal opinion, it has become less about the American people and more about the internal disagreements between each party.

This makes it difficult to become politically involved because you either don’t feel heard, or you do but you are faced with a bunch of people who judge you for your beliefs.

Therefore, I believe that, theoretically, you should be politically active, but realistically, the issues of politics have become less about the actual country’s problems and more about what party you associate with.

However, I do support political activism. No country has a perfect government, and there are plenty of issues that don’t directly affect me but still continue to exist. By acknowledging that, I also acknowledge that they are plenty of issues that many citizens directly deal with on a day-to-day basis. And because of this, I do believe it is important for American citizens to get involved with politics.

America has always stood for equality, justice and freedom, and I believe that the American people play a big part in holding those who regulate our laws and represent our values accountable.

From what I observed around me, my generation is much more politically active than previous generations have been. I believe this is because of the rise of social media, which makes it much easier to spread and share news.

My greatest concern with political activism driven by the information gathered over social media platforms is the tendency and opportunity to absorb false information. When my mom was younger, news was mainly spread through things like the newspaper, radio, or sometimes through the television.

While it may not always be entirely accurate, there was some sort of verification process that ensured the information being spread was gathered from a reliable source. Isn’t that what the news was for? To hear reliable information about current events.

In today’s day and age, it is much easier to read something not fact checked or reliable and believe it. And scarily enough, there are plenty of people who do spend the time to make false posts or videos with the intention of influencing the opinions of those who don’t make sure their sources are dependable.

But despite this danger, at a human level, I think we all, as citizens, have the responsibility to keep up to date with what is going on in our government. Sometimes, I think back to when I was younger, and I realized very few of the adults I knew actually voted. I didn’t think much of it then, but as I think about it now, and I think about why some of the people I know don’t vote or plan on voting, I’ve discovered that mainly it was because of how little information they knew.

Oftentimes the people I knew that didn’t vote knew snippets of information regarding politics but more often than not they weren't very up to date. I think it is this lack of information or the lack of readily available information that is to blame for thousands of Americans not participating in not only the presidential election but also in the primaries and caucuses as well.

I believe media plays a big part in influencing who decides to become politically active and why they feel they need their voice heard. People have more motivation to go out and vote for candidates that they believe represent their values and beliefs but oftentimes we depend on media to inform us who the candidates are and what their message is.

The issue with this is that media itself is often times biased and their articles are often written to please their main audience. This makes the media an unreliable source of information when it comes to politics, political views, and political issues. People should stay away from opinion pieces and base their opinions on more fact-based texts.

If more people spent the time to research what is going on in our government and realized how possible it is for their voices to be heard I believe more people would take the opportunity to get involved in politics through channels like voting and signing petitions.

America and its government were shaped by the American people. We created a government that allowed for all voices to be heard and we follow laws that generations before us decided would benefit the future. Being politically active should not be a choice but a responsibility because without the voice of the American people we would not be living in a democracy. It is time for us take the time and remember what America stands for and what makes our country great.

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