Q. “Are all Americans equally able to become engaged in the government? What factors make it more possible for some people to become engaged than others? What could be done to change this?”
Response
Indeed, all Americans are equally able to become engaged in the government. For instance, Americans can be engaged in the government through emailing political representatives. Citizens can file complaints and also take part in political blogs and public opinion polls. Others take part in the government through political activism. The rights achieved by the activists have led to enhanced quality of life for several Americans. Voting for the most suited candidates is also part of engagement in the government. Americans can engage in the government through signing petitions, donating money towards campaigns, or even attending political rallies. Civil rights legislation focused on both holding public office and voting. Civil rights legislation has discrimination in employment and housing, integrated public accommodations, and schools. Through these ways, policies can be influenced by engaged citizens.
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Factors that make it possible for some to be engaged than others include committed partisanship. Committed partisanship can be described as supporting a specific party, which is an alienating factor for some young Americans (Bartels, 2018). Some Americans are concerned about their political affiliation, while others consider themselves independent and focus on specific issues. Another factor is education and wealth. The percentage of considered regular voters has risen as levels of education and income also rise. Government engagement depends on how people feel concerning current political matters.
What could be done to change committed partisanship is through social media regulation. Social media undermines institutional and citizens' trust. It permits violent disinformation that lead to easy manipulation (Tucker et al., 2018). When individuals operate their social media accounts, they can begin forwarding and posting videos, images, and links that could negatively impact others, leading to a politically polarized society. Therefore, regulating social media is an effective way to reduce committed partisanship and make people engaged in the government. What could be done to change concerns about political affiliations is that people need to understand the issues that affect them instead of what political affiliation present to them. As such, many Americans will be actively engaged in the government. Americans should be oriented on the positive impacts concerning what issues matter to them first before thinking about their political ideologies. What could be done by the government is that it should improve both education and institutions should raise incomes of persons to make them more engaged in the government.
References
Bartels, L. M. (2018). Partisanship in the Trump era. The Journal of Politics, 80(4), 1483-1494.
Tucker, J. A., Guess, A., Barberá, P., Vaccari, C., Siegel, A., Sanovich, S., ... & Nyhan, B. (2018). Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: A review of the scientific literature. Political polarization, and political disinformation: a review of the scientific literature (March 19, 2018).
