Our lives are filled with information. From a young age we are taught the basics of science, mathematics, music, history and language. We learn every single day of our lives or, at least, we should. One of our responsibilities of living in a democracy is that we must always be informed. An informed public is both its protection on the infringement of its right by an oppressive system and guarantees the safety of their fellow citizens. An ignorant voter base allows oppressive, or more often ineffective, leaders to be elected and implement laws to the determent of a free society. In our lives as American citizens, it is our duty to look at all things equally with an inquisitive mind.
One the worst dangers to the free world is a voter base that believes it is free and educated. It is these voters that elect leaders who lead to the downfall of freedom.This danger is compounded by leaders who are not just inefficient, but cunning. These leaders find ways to manipulate public opinion in their favor or against their competition. Voters who are uneducated about the policies and behaviors of candidates will find themselves supporting a candidate who doesn't support them.
The best protection is the informed populace which I spoke of before. When Bernie Sanders lost his spotlight for Presidential candidacy, I no longer heard anything about help for the next generation. The students who will become the current generation's support when (or if) they retire. Two things come to mind when I think about the lack of interest in education, either candidates do not care about the students dealing with costs three times higher than what it should be, or its planned that the next generation will be stuck in perpetual debt for the next 20 years of their life.
In this upcoming Presidential election for the 45th President of the United States of America, I fear that both candidates for the major parties are manipulating the masses for their own gain. A democracy uneducated is a democracy doomed to oligarchy. In this day, more and more people have numerous opportunities for learning through school, through each other, and through the internet. We need to take these opportunities to pass on to each other and save our country from oligarchy.
