Presidential Elections.
From SusoSight
| Number: | 111 |
| Date created: | 2004-08-25 16:37:38 |
| Previous Thought: | A world without money |
| Next Thought: | Enemies are people too |
| Voting results: | Interesting: 27 |
Wow, I never thought I'd be talking about this here. ;-)
Over the past 10 or so years, American youth has been hammered by the media with facts about how voter turnout for presidential elections has declined drastically in recent years. Leading a lot of people to the conclution that millions upon millions of people have stopped voting. In terms of numbers, it was if the voter turnout went from 80 or 90% down to 40% or so.
In reality, the change isn't quite as drastic as they have led you to think. In fact, voter turnout at its highest in American history was only 81.8% in the 1860 election. Since 1900, it has never been above 74% and the average from 1900 to 1956 is 58% and from 1960 to 2000 was 55%. Sure its going down, but its nowhere near as bad as people are led to think.
1996 with 49.1% voter turnout brought on the lowest turnout since 1924 when there was only 48.9% turnout. Big deal.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the media is not only an outlet for you to be informed, but also one to be tricked and misled about the state of the world. Pumping fear into the hearts and minds of millions will only lead them to watch more news, which is what they want.