ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090104
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
THE GENDER gap, the race gap, the age gap. All play a role in defining differing interests among voters. Add to these the one gap that threatens harm to the democratic process: the knowledge gap.
Americans can be as ignorant as they care to be about their government, of course. It's a free country. But a recent survey by The Washington Post, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University shows how such ignorance can affect the political climate, influence government policy and determine people's votes - which may sometimes be cast contrary to a person's own stated interests.
In a recent Post story about the survey results, a political scientist who had analyzed data from other surveys told the newspaper he found "There was 'virtually no relationship' between the political issues that low-knowledge voters said 'matter most to them and the positions of the candidates they voted for on those issues. It was as if their vote was random.'"
Lack of basic knowledge - about how government operates, who the players are, philosophical differences between the major political parties, how the government spends tax money - creates fertile ground for cynicism.
That cynicism contributes greatly to the dark view that government never makes anything better. Less-informed respondents to the Post survey consistently said, for example, that in recent decades the quality of the nation's air and water have worsened. But both are significantly better.
All the usual suspects are lined up as possible culprits in this sorry situation: The schools aren't doing their job; television news is too superficial; lifestyles have become too busy; newspapers have dumbed-down political coverage, reducing the substance of policy conflicts to largely irrelevant, but interesting, ego clashes and horse races.
There are well-informed voters, however. They know how government works; they know who represents them; they know what Congress is doing.
The great and general wisdom of the American people should never be underestimated. But is it any surprise that among those the Post surveyed, whites knew more about politics and government than did blacks; men more than women; rich people more than the poor; Republicans more than Democrats; and the better-educated more than those with less schooling?
Knowledge is power.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB