Let's also remember that the "voters get to pick as they please" argument is not an adequate substitute for becoming an informed voter and taking one's responsibilities to a democracy seriously. Freedom isn't free. There is more information than ever available to us, if we choose to look. Push civics classes at the high school and university levels. Create opportunities for public service that bring citizens into closer contact with public officials and the events of the times. Ensure that all individuals have as much access to information as possible, via better broadband service in rural areas, increased library access in urban ones, and free publications that make party and candidate positions clear. If at that point voters still choose to be underinformed, there's simply no helping them, and the history books can tell of how they enabled the Trumps of our society. Let them own that for all time. We can only do our part to help.
I think you have now hit upon the core problem with MAGA voters and key to the culture wars: They have tired of being "tolded and scolded [they]'ve got to love the protestant, the chinaman, the negro and the jew" (Biff Rose, 1968) and having their children schooled with values they do not find acceptable. They know all about opportunities for civic engagement -- and have taken over school boards as a result. Sure, access to information -- but where is the line separating "curation" and editorial prudence from the outright selection bias evident in many libraries? Voters do not choose to be uninformed: that's a judgement. They choose to be informed about something else.
I see your points, but the answer can be both. The human mind has the capacity to learn more; it need not be an either-or proposition. People who are willfully ignorant choose to be uninformed if they know the information is out there but they do not care to look for or at it. Everybody is busy. Yet they find time to read or watch about the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Lakers or NASCAR or reality show X and/or whatever else floats their boat -- because it is more important to them than our democracy, which they too often either see as someone else's problem to solve or they feel that their own voice is too small to matter. Yet a relative handful of them, in just a few key states, would have spared us a Trump presidency in the first place. You are right that people make choices. If they won't do it for themselves, we have to instill in them the importance of learning and voting from a knowledgeable point of view. If the stakes are literally as high as losing our democracy, we should not be too kind now when history books later will ask why we did not try harder to intervene when we had the chance to do so.
I really hope that generations of Americans are raised with a renewed appreciation for civic duty and participation. When MAGA and its ilk are finally defeated, millions of Americans will have engaged in the active fight against the unravelling of our country. With any luck, many of these folks will instill their newly-appreciated values in the next generation. The effects of WWII were felt for generations after the war's end (partly because of the Cold War that immediately ensued, but also the memory of the war itself). Unlike WWII, though, this fight has been on American soil* for American freedom. This literal fight for democracy and our constitutional values will hopefully have a similar effect. We absolutely need ways to reengage the citizenry with each other and our government. Now, more than ever, I'm open-minded about compulsory military or civil service to ensure the majority of Americans are exposed to people and ideas outside of their ideological bubble.
*Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, but that was a single isolated incident. The vast majority of fighting occurred elsewhere.
Let's also remember that the "voters get to pick as they please" argument is not an adequate substitute for becoming an informed voter and taking one's responsibilities to a democracy seriously. Freedom isn't free. There is more information than ever available to us, if we choose to look. Push civics classes at the high school and university levels. Create opportunities for public service that bring citizens into closer contact with public officials and the events of the times. Ensure that all individuals have as much access to information as possible, via better broadband service in rural areas, increased library access in urban ones, and free publications that make party and candidate positions clear. If at that point voters still choose to be underinformed, there's simply no helping them, and the history books can tell of how they enabled the Trumps of our society. Let them own that for all time. We can only do our part to help.
I think you have now hit upon the core problem with MAGA voters and key to the culture wars: They have tired of being "tolded and scolded [they]'ve got to love the protestant, the chinaman, the negro and the jew" (Biff Rose, 1968) and having their children schooled with values they do not find acceptable. They know all about opportunities for civic engagement -- and have taken over school boards as a result. Sure, access to information -- but where is the line separating "curation" and editorial prudence from the outright selection bias evident in many libraries? Voters do not choose to be uninformed: that's a judgement. They choose to be informed about something else.
I see your points, but the answer can be both. The human mind has the capacity to learn more; it need not be an either-or proposition. People who are willfully ignorant choose to be uninformed if they know the information is out there but they do not care to look for or at it. Everybody is busy. Yet they find time to read or watch about the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Lakers or NASCAR or reality show X and/or whatever else floats their boat -- because it is more important to them than our democracy, which they too often either see as someone else's problem to solve or they feel that their own voice is too small to matter. Yet a relative handful of them, in just a few key states, would have spared us a Trump presidency in the first place. You are right that people make choices. If they won't do it for themselves, we have to instill in them the importance of learning and voting from a knowledgeable point of view. If the stakes are literally as high as losing our democracy, we should not be too kind now when history books later will ask why we did not try harder to intervene when we had the chance to do so.
I really hope that generations of Americans are raised with a renewed appreciation for civic duty and participation. When MAGA and its ilk are finally defeated, millions of Americans will have engaged in the active fight against the unravelling of our country. With any luck, many of these folks will instill their newly-appreciated values in the next generation. The effects of WWII were felt for generations after the war's end (partly because of the Cold War that immediately ensued, but also the memory of the war itself). Unlike WWII, though, this fight has been on American soil* for American freedom. This literal fight for democracy and our constitutional values will hopefully have a similar effect. We absolutely need ways to reengage the citizenry with each other and our government. Now, more than ever, I'm open-minded about compulsory military or civil service to ensure the majority of Americans are exposed to people and ideas outside of their ideological bubble.
*Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, but that was a single isolated incident. The vast majority of fighting occurred elsewhere.