AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS IN DANGER…REALLY!

….The document that started it all

 

Donald Trump has proven that we should be in fear of losing our democracy.

 

With the election ~2 weeks away, these are additional inputs for commenting on what is threatening our democracy.

The threat against our politics is real and it is based on “voter ignorance”.

 

Yes, there are those ignorant voters that think what Donald Trump says is correct and real, and that’s just one kind of ignorance.  It is fortunately appearing that many American voters are seeing through Trump’s false statements and hopefully the polls are correct on the direction of the election.

 

But with Trump’s statements, where he is calling on his supporters to “go out and watch” polling places because there is “rampant voter fraud” or that if he loses, “the election is rigged”.  Believing these statements is just one of the areas of ignorance that is causing issues against our democracy.

 

If only a majority of the voters would take the time to seriously investigate the reality, or lack of truth in what our politicians say, and to understand that to maintain our democracy requires knowing the real truth.  Democracies cannot exist with an uninformed electorate.  This is very important for long-term political survival.

 

As a case in point, a poll was taken immediately after the 3^rd Presidential Debate.  A series of questions were asked and here are the results from these questions:

 

>>> Although there is no evidence of major voter fraud in US elections, Trump has a receptive audience for his claims of rampant voter fraud.  84% of Republicans, 75% of independents and 52% of Democrats believe that there is a “meaningful amount” of voter fraud in US elections.  This is totally false.

 

>>> What do these voters mean when they say they believe there is such major voter fraud?  Answer:  It was found that nearly 60% of Republicans believe that illegal immigrants are voting, (a claim that has been circulated by Trump in recent days and debunked by many political scientists). The share of independents and Democrats who believe non-citizens are voting is considerably lower, but not insignificant.

 

>>> It was also found that 43% of Republicans believe people vote under the names of registered voters who have died, and that 36% of Republicans believe that election officials are manipulating vote totals. This in not an issue.  Only a few voters believed that many people are double-voting, or voting more than once.

 

>>> The rhetoric about voter suppression is not resonating with Democrats the way it does with Republicans.   Today, 42% of Democrats believe voter ID laws contribute to voter suppression, while only 26% of  Republicans believe that voter ID laws are even an issue.  (Republican politicians in multiple Red states have admitted for years that their strict voter ID laws have helped elect more Republican candidates by limiting election turn out.)

 

Bogus politicians such as Donald Trump have learned that their supporters want to believe what their candidates say, so it is well understood that few devoted Trump followers seldom fact-check or follow up on what their candidate says.

 

When trump says that all his sexual assault accusers are liars; that Mexico will pay for the border wall; that Hillary is against the 2^nd Amendment; that Trump will be able to increase America’s GDP by over 4% and that he will repeal and replace Obamacare with something better & cheaper, his followers will not take the time to check out the untruthfulness in these statements.

 

This election, with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee, has made very clear, three major voter truths.

 

Truth #1: A large portion of the American electorate will believe a candidate’s false statements at face value.

 

Truth #2: Having Donald Trump as a candidate has shown how ignorant the American voters have become in understanding how their democracy works.

 

Truth #3: Many American voters don’t seem to understand that a democracy cannot exist if the voting public cannot make educated and informed decisions based on the truth.

 

I rest my case and I do fear for our democracy.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016