we get here why did we get here these
are all questions we need to ask
ourselves as a country as a community
and as individuals this election cycle
was not a normal one regardless of who
you voted for or what political
ideologies you hold we were all duped by
the system that gave us the president
with the lowest approval ratings in 40
years based on this election cycle there
are serious philosophical and political
problems that need to be addressed such
as unfounded political polarization the
lack of voter turnout and the spread of
misinformation the first problem we will
analyze will stem from unfounded
political polarization or polarization
that has no basis and does not come from
reliable educated sources in article
titled causes and consequences of
polarization study that party
polarization has the tendency to
represent extreme policy views which
leads to biased and unequal
representation more so this current
democratic process alienates those who
do not identify with either end of the
political spectrum an article by Pew
Research in 2016 found that about 58% of
Republicans had extremely unfavorable
impressions of the Democratic Party
while about 55% of Democrats had highly
negative views of the GOP it is in my
opinion that political polarization that
originates from hate and Prejudice is
unhealthy
however polarization occurs because of
informed debate and the critical
analysis of policy then that is a sign
of a healthy and functioning democracy
and it is important to have a
functioning democracy because the very
nature of American values arrest upon a
strong democracy back institution to
dispute that is dispute the Constitution
voter turnout played a large role in the
2016 election
according to political there are about
200 million people registered to vote by
October of 2016
around 129 million people voted the
United States election project reported
that about 58.9% of eligible voters had
voted this past election which was
higher than President Barack Obama’s
re-election in 2012 where about 58
percent of eligible voters had voted the
2016 election results weren’t incredibly
high or low but in general the US has
very low voter turnout according to Pew
Research the US has one of the least
active voting populations among
developed countries with the u.s. placed
at thirty one out of thirty five
countries in regards to highest voter
turnout with places like Belgium with 87
percent and turkey with 84 percent the
u.s. is lagging behind when you have 40
percent of a country around 95 million
people not showing up for a presidential
election there are serious consequences
if we don’t care about who’s in the Oval
Office or in Congress then the issues we
care about will never be addressed the
spread of misinformation played a large
role in the 2016 election from incorrect
statements in the debates – you’re crazy
on Facebook page there was no shortage
of the obfuscation of the truth these
fake news articles support the idea of
opinion follows truth where the opinion
of one individual becomes the truth for
thousands of people for example one of
Donald Trump’s many famous quotes
include if I were to run I’d run as a
Republican they’re the dumbest group of
voters in the country they believe
anything on Fox News I could lie and
they’d still eat it up I bet my numbers
would be terrific this quote was
supposedly said in a 1998 interview with
People magazine but according to Snopes
a fact-checking website who thoroughly
examined the interview found that Donald
Trump had never said that so how did
this completely false quote get around
Phil Mentzer a professor Indiana
University who studies the spread and
misinformation sums up these sort of
situation situations easily
he said suppose if you if you like
Donald Trump and hate Hillary Clinton
then it’s easy for you to believe a fake
piece of news about something terrible
Hillary is done and that these fake news
websites often generate the same news
just changing the names to get people on
either side to be outraged up according
to Men’s Research there’s about 13 hours
between the publishing of a false news
report and the invalidation of it
13 hours is plenty of time for that
article to be read by hundreds of
thousands of people this is from a
nonpartisan fact-checking website called
PolitiFact
politifact took singing is made by
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and
rated them as some category of true or
false and this is done by extensive
research into the validity of the claims
made and the important aspect I want to
tear up to derive from this website is
that about 70% of Donald’s statements
were in some shape or form false now
about 26% of Hillary’s Clinton
statements are in some shape or form
false when we allow lies to become the
norm at what point do the citizens know
the truth and how do we know that the
president has our best interests in mind
unless we can reassess our past
decisions and continue to follow this
dangerous path our next election will be
as consequential as this one we need to
revamp and rebrand our democracy I
present to you my vision of democracy
2.0 this is a bipartisan solution for
improving our democracy by making it
more effective and capable for example
new stations they have incredible impact
on our listeners beliefs as most liberal
listeners tend to tune in to liberal
news outlets while most conservative
listeners tend to
sent to conservative outlets these new
stations and outlets tend to have biases
and will present information in that
biased way the goal of new stations
should be just to inform and if opinions
are discussed opinions from both sides
of the political spectrum must be
brought in and discussed because it will
allow the listeners and Watchers to
widen those perspectives and understand
the opposing views the president the
president is supposed to be credible and
correct as a source of information for
thousands of Americans so it is crucial
that every word he or she says is true
from press conferences to interviews the
president must be fact checked and in if
there is an incorrect statement made it
is imperative that the White House have
a response team to immediately correct
the mistake before the information
spreads one of the most important things
that needs to be emphasized must be done
within the education system government
voting political efficacy all these
things should be stressed in schools
because children need to know that their
vote and their dedication will be
incredibly impactful in the future but
more importantly we need to teach
children about morals and character they
need to know about basic human rights
and previous in justices that have
occurred within our country they need to
know about respect respecting people of
a different gender respecting people of
a different religion respecting people
from a different background respecting
people of a different color because this
will carry out with them throughout
their lives and it will change the way
we think act govern despite all these
problems the power to democracy lies
within the people you next time we face
a cusp of making a huge decision I want
you to ask yourself Who am i what am i
thinking how did I get here
why did I get here thank you [Applause]