"We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chests. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, we aspired to intelligence, we didn't belittle it, and it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and we didn't scare so easy. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed, by great men, men who were revered."
—Jeff Daniels, delivering a biting soliloquy on American decline (HBO's The Newsroom)
The signs have been there. Warning lights going off all over the place and the sad thing is we didn't listen. We didn't listen then and we sure as hell aren't listening now.
Today it seems as if we're happy to get our important news from comedians masquerading as journalists. Tragically, the joke is on us. We continue to go further and further up shit's creek without a paddle.
If JFK's quote that "the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all" is true, then we are all in a world of trouble.
For someone who grew up in an era that Jeff Daniel's character is speaking of, it's hard to watch that clip and not shed a tear, not for ourselves, but for the sake of our children and grand-children and their future.
Each generation is supposed to leave behind a better world for our kids to live in. As far as this country goes, we may be the first generation that has failed miserably. God help us all.
If JFK's quote that "the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all" is true, then we are all in a world of trouble.
For someone who grew up in an era that Jeff Daniel's character is speaking of, it's hard to watch that clip and not shed a tear, not for ourselves, but for the sake of our children and grand-children and their future.
Each generation is supposed to leave behind a better world for our kids to live in. As far as this country goes, we may be the first generation that has failed miserably. God help us all.
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Blog: A Misinformed Electorate Imperils Us All
Six months before he was assassinated, John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Vanderbilt University in which he declared that "only an educated and informed ...
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June 17, 2014
A Misinformed Electorate Imperils Us All
By James D. Agresti
Six months before he was assassinated, John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Vanderbilt Universityin which he declared that "only an educated and informed people will be a free people," and "the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all." If these precepts are true, the results of a groundbreaking poll show the United States is in grave danger.
To determine what voters understand about policy issues, Just Facts, the research institute of which I am president, commissioned a scientific nationwide poll of people who say they vote "every time there is an opportunity" or in "most elections." The poll consisted of 20 questions, one concerning voters' political leanings and the rest dealing with their knowledge of policy issues.
The policy questions covered an array of issues, including health care, hunger, government spending, the national debt, taxes, pollution, global warming, energy, and Social Security
Disappointingly, a majority of voters gave the correct answer to only four of the 19 questions, even though the factual gap between the right and wrong answers was sometimes enormous. For example:
- Only 4% of Democratic voters and 31% of Republican voters knew that the top 1% of income earners pay a higher average federal tax rate than the middle class. Data from the Congressional Budget Office shows that the upper 1% pays an average federal tax rate 2.5 times higher than that of the middle class.
- Only 18% of Democratic voters and 58% of Republican voters knew that the federal government spends more money on social programs (such as Medicare, education, and food stamps) than on national defense. Roughly 60% of federal spending is for social programs and 20% is for national defense.
- Only 28% of Democratic voters and 41% of Republican voters knew that the air in the United States is less polluted than it was 30 years ago. EPA-measured levels of criteria air pollutants and hazardous air pollutants have fallen considerably over this period.
The above results reveal greater levels of ignorance among Democratic voters, but Republican voters fared worse on other questions, such as the following:
- Only 23% of Republican voters knew that the Earth is generally warmer than it was 30 years ago, while 74% of Democratic voters answered this question correctly. Both satellite measurements and ground-level thermometersshow that the earth's average temperature has noticeably increased since 30 years ago.
- Only 10% of Republican voters and 37% of Democratic voters knew that Social Security's financial challenges do not stem from politicians looting the Trust Fund. In fact, the term "looting" is a misnomer, and Social Security's fiscal problems are the result of factors such as increases in life expectancy without a comparable increase in the retirement age, the higher birth rate of the baby-boom generation compared to following generations, and the increasing number of people receiving disability benefits.
While voters bear responsibility for educating themselves, such glaring disconnects between perception and reality go far beyond voter apathy or inattentiveness. As our institute has repeatedly documented, in addition to deceitful rhetoric spread by politicians and commentators, the public is also misled by journalists, educators, advocacy groups, think-tanks, and fact-checkers. Collectively, this produces a caustic flow of disinformation that undermines informed decision-making in our elections, institutions, and personal lives.
If President Kennedy was right, our nation will invariably decline unless more
James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a nonprofit institute dedicated to researching and publishing verifiable facts about public policy.
......."Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity...few people have yet considered the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of cold war with its neighbors."
George Orwell
The reign of the Banks was reintroduced on the back of, and is sustained by, a major campaign of corruption of the political processes and the public discourse. The decisive moment was the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and the further withdrawal of the watchers on the wall by both political parties who have gone along to get along.
The difference in the analogy offered in this talk is that the monied interests are not some semi-benign doddering old emperor who has fallen victim to the flattery of courtiers and the schemes of conmen. They are a monstrous construction of reckless pride and greed who will work
We are surely not the first generation to face this sort of trial, since it is in the very nature of this fallen world, and the burden of every generation to rise to their particular trials and temptations. If anything we may be notable for our weakness, our lack of faithfulness, our foolish pride, a perverted perspective unworthy of our many gifts, and the stubborn hardness of our hearts too often in the name of our just and loving Lord.
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