The world of politics is one with endless boundaries. Politics cover virtually every aspect of life and the legal infrastructure that we live today. It is a way for people to make changes, and for changes to be made for the betterment of the people. People learn of politics through many different sources, though perhaps the leading source is the media. The media publicizes important and current governmental issues by means of newspaper, internet, and magazines. Television and television news is a major contributor to the publicizing of government actions to the masses. On any given day at any given time, there are various news channels that focus specifically on the current political climate in the US and elsewhere. Political information can also be discussed in various interest groups.
In these groups people can take their ideas and causes to the streets and persuade others to go along with their views on important issues. One of many reasons American politics is so special is because everyone is entitled to their own opinion on our government and can express it anyway they please. Also, being part of any politically related group gives people the opportunity to learn about issues that they may not have previously known. The opportunity to be educated on endless political topics and issues is one of the advantages of people communicating about related topics. Schooling is also a primary source of information to be distributed about politics and its impact on us today. People can only help themselves by getting informed about our government and what is going on with laws, elections, and politicians currently in office. The beauty of democracy is that we the people make the decisions and we must take full advantage of that.
I believe the most influential sources of politics is the media and, specifically, the politically based television shows such as MSNBC,CNN,and Fox News. All of these channels have different opinions, such as Fox’s Republican favored views, and MSNBC’s less partisan broadcasting. I find these sources of media to be extremely influential to both myself and the people of our country, as intelligent and informed individuals are regularly interviewed about various sorts of political topics and their opinions surrounding them. They give specific answers on why they like certain issues, why they dislike certain issues, and even what politicians they feel strongly about and what politicians they disagree with. If one has no background information on any form of politics it only make sense to base their views on what these other, informed “experts” feel.
I also believe our parents have a strong impact on the way youth feel towards politics. It seems as if the philosophy of the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” plays a role in the way we feel about government as well. For example, if at the dinner table, a parent adamantly discusses his favoritism of the Independent party there is a good chance u may agree because of the simple fact that your Father and guardian feels the same way. I, personally, believe that the Internet has had the biggest impact on my political views, because I have been fortunate enough to find non-partisan websites
providing a great deal of information about various political topics. This provides me with the choice of figuring out what party and specific issues I find to my liking. These websites have persuaded me to the point where I comfortably define myself as a member of the Independent party because I feel as though the media and big-shot parties don’t have a right to define who we are in simply two different groups.
We, as Americans, all have a choice and I believe there are far too many choices to be allow ourselves to be sucked into one of two dominate decision making parties, and we should instead co-exist with them and vote how we truly feel instead of what a party feels. In my opinion, the Independent voter takes the full advantage of being a free citizen and voting according to conscience, the way it should be.
Overall, politics is something we should all learn more and more about because it is everything and it is everywhere and the more you know the better the decision you make.