The best thing I read all last week was this article by Louis Menand on public opinion. (The second best thing was a Times magazine article on a performance artist who masquerades as a preacher and spouts off about materialism, but it's no longer on line, so we have to move on.)
Menand brings up the depressing topic of voters and how they make their decision about who to vote for. In 1964, Philip Converse concluded that only a small margin of Americans have any coherent political perspective. Most people just vote based on how well they did that year. Another scholar recently found that many voters based their decision in the Gore/Bush election on if their county was dry or not. Access to pubs or lack of access may have turned 7 states in that election.
Other sobering statistics that Menand rattles off:
- 70% of Americans cannot name their senator or congressman
- 49% believe that the President can suspend the constitution
- 30% can name an issue to explain their vote
- 20% hold consistent opinions over time.
He concludes with this quote from Robert Putnam:
"Most men are not political animals. The world of public affairs is not their world.. It is alien to them -- possibly benevolent, more probably threatening, but nearly always alien. Most men are not interested in politics. Most do not participate in politics."
(There is a lot more in the article, so check it out.)
I've taught Introduction to American Politics at a city university many times. Most of the students in the class don't intend on being majors, so that first day, I face 50+ of the most disinterested faces that you've even seen. They are busy checking out the girl with the halter top in the front row, thinking about going out that night, and noticing that I carry the most beat up backpack. They're thinking about everything but politics.
Those disinterested masses is why most experienced professors foist this class off on adjuncts and junior faculty. Actually, I like teaching it.
The first few weeks are usually tough, because these students don't care and are uninformed, but as the class progresses, things improve. I teach them about the process of making laws and define all the terms for them. And then we do pro and con on different issues -- affirmative action, campaign finance reform, death penalty, prayer in school. And then they surprise themselves. They do have opinions. I make them learn the name of their local congressman and then call the office to find out answers to questions. By the end of the class, class debates escalate into fights and ten new students declare themselves to be political science majors.
I agree with Putnam that men are not political animals naturally. But teach them how the system works and give them courage to speak their mind, then they are hooked for life. At least, I hope so.