General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 2/3 of Americans can't name the three branches of government. 1/3 can't name one. [View all]MineralMan
(146,284 posts)Most people don't think about government except when they have to deal with it, and that's usually in some small way or through paying their taxes or something. It's not a part of their day-to-day thinking, and the civics class they slept through was a long, long time ago.
Even here on DU, I see people who don't really understand how our federal government functions. Such people expect the President to be able to sign a piece of paper and change everything. That level of ignorance of how this government actually functions is frightening, especially on a political discussion forum.
Education is the primary thing we all need to be doing. Helping people understand government makes it a lot easier when trying to convince them to come out and vote on election day. If they don't know why it matters or how it works, why should they bother? So, that's always part of GOTV efforts. It's amazing how many people don't know why their vote for state legislators matters, or even for local elected officials. If they don't know who has what power to do something, there's no reason to be concerned about who wins the election.
So, statistics like this don't surprise me at all. What surprises me is that we're not all thinking about how to correct that ignorance. Ignorance is correctable.