People often become uncomfortable when politics get brought up in conversation. I experience this often when people as me what my major is, and I respond with "political science." For some reason, the discussion of politics rends some very uncomfortable. Perhaps it is because of the nature of political discussion -- people often become irrational when it comes to their political views, much like their religious views. The possibility of a heated discussion makes people want to avoid them at all costs. Sometimes, this births a view in which people do not understand the desire to have political discussions in the first place, but I feel this is a disservice to societies and nations.
The United States, which revolutionized the democratic process, is a country that allows us freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. Our national psyche is viewed as one that is headstrong and outspoken, and that is because we are a country founded on the belief that people should be able to speak their minds. There are countries where people are sentenced to death for speaking out against their government. In North Korea, if one speaks out against the government, they are put into a concentration camp, their family is put in a concentration camp, and all children of that family will remain in that concentration camp. We cannot neglect our privilege to be able to criticize the government. Thus, it is especially worrisome that the United States is only ranked thirty-first in voter turnout. This is our primary fundamental method of being able to change the government and to exhibit our ideologies and desires, and we are taking it for granted.
It is also important to criticize the government so that we know when it is being corrupt and needs to be changed. We must have a public conversation about what the people want and what we want our government to do. It is important for people to discuss what their political views are so that we know what our fellow citizens are thinking, so that we may criticize one another and innovate socially accepted ideas. Debating among ourselves allows us to redact previous ideas that we may come to find are faulty, and embrace new ideas that we find are superior or a good addition to our preexisting set of ideas.
However, in such a diverse country as the United States, with many ideas and movements floating and interacting among our people, it is even more important to debate one another. We must exchange our ideas to see if we may find we want to adopt that idea. There are so many different types of people in the United States, and so we must be open to listening to one another. In exploring these different ideas and concepts, we allow ourselves to innovate individually and as a society, which exhibits itself in our government. In a nation birthed upon the idea of free discussion and having the ability to hold whatever beliefs one wants, it is criminal to not interact in civil debate.
Of course, if one feels they do not wish to share their ideas, that is their personal choice. However, we should not feel, as a collective, uncomfortable in the face of others' ideas, or in our own ideas. We must be comfortable enough in our own ideas to be able to argue for them and to change them if we find them insufficient. When we stop having national conversations, especially about our government, we stop taking advantage of the first amendment, and surrender our ability to change our government. That simply cannot be in the United States, or anywhere. Every collective needs this open-mindedness and argumentative quality in their psyche.
