Essay Example on It is difficult for the government to understand what its citizens Want

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It is difficult for the government to understand what its citizens want for multiple reasons We are a nation comprised of hundreds of millions of people and opinions And as we will discuss further in length soon we are even opinionated about things in which we are uneducated There are three primary causes for the disconnect between government officials and their constituents the citizens themselves elected officials and the media Briefly citizens need to put forth more effort to be informed They need to be open for conversation open to allow their opinions to evolve and open to compromise The government needs to learn how to be more transparent and honest less power hungry and be more responsive to their constituents The media needs to be true to its ideals to provide unbiased news to educate its viewers As we noted in our class discussion about Public Opinion and Media post 5 we identified a key problem in our society today that we have a declining interest in educating ourselves A core reason that the US government does not know what the people want is because the people themselves do not know that they want Growing up in a house that closely followed current events after speaking with fellow Queens College students I noticed an absence in knowledge that many students have I do not think this is on purpose perhaps they do not see an incentive to engage in modern politics as there are far more entertaining things do it Or as we covered in post 9 discussing Common Interest Groups there is a diffusion of responsibility Maybe many feel with collective action their voice is unheard or someone else will take care of it so they do not bother educating themselves

Not only are American citizens at fault our elected officials are also responsible for the disconnect Many legislators have become career politicians and only seek to stay in power rather than represent their constituents Until term limits are properly in place this will continue to be an issue Citizens need to be updated on our government s positions on various issues and that responsibility falls onto our news outlets As someone who listens regularly to both news shows and talk shows I believe there is a fundamental difference between the two show forms A news outlet one would hope would deliver unbiased unfiltered news On the other hand a talk show is led by a host and the host is be able to share their opinion and run a program geared towards their agenda Unfortunately some are mistaking news shows as a channel for biased information Many would argue a problem that has seeped into our generation is the cloudy filter of the news outlets A problem develops when a news outlet presents itself as unbiased but in reality it has an unspoken agenda that creeps into the headlines Over time the unsuspecting viewers realize they are being fed biased information and feel misled 



This creates a sense of distrust that prevents our country from moving forward Aside from our biased news reporting we also have partial commercials swaying our opinions In post 9 titled Interest Groups we discussed the infamous Citizens United v FEC case in which the government equated corporations to individuals and money to speech This ruling allowed corporations freedom of speech by giving them the right to spend an unlimited amount of money towards biased advertising By allowing huge corporations unrestricted access to our screens we are essentially allowing them to influence us with whatever agenda they choose At the end of the day with any large group communication becomes difficult even more so in a country with close to 300 million voters As we discussed in our Political Parties discussion post 8 we have become a delicate nation Every word or action one can potentially offend someone else We are becoming accustomed to focusing on what divides us as a nation instead of our common goals Regrettably in times of tragedy we have seen the strength of a unified America Under attack by 9 11 we saw the power in our unity Strangers risked their lives for each other and we saw the individual love and care that makes our country so great We have the potential to focus on what unites us but we first need to stop focusing our differences Today a unified America seems nearly impossible Differing political opinions have created tension and separated families But it doesn t need to be this way the problem is the way were are handling our differences not the differences itself We have the potential to unite towards a common goal and solve our political conflicts but we have a long way to go We need to learn to respect each other Regardless of age ethnicity race or religion we need to promote respectful conversation so that we can become the great nation we all know we can be



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