You’ve done your homework. My only answer to the public not knowing or caring is to make EDUCATION priority No. 1. Second, in Exeter students in their HS years participate in presidential campaigns by working in their various offices throughout the state. In this way they become not only interested in politics and issues but actually make some interesting observations without a lot of the biases older voters have developed. Third, we need to keep BOTH parties strong so there’s a balance of power and diversity of ideas. In this way the system of checks and balances will trump extreme policies.

Seeing is believing, maybe, but since we all can’t be on hand at every event, or even at one event, we have to rely on outside reporting. For me, thanks to surfing the web, I have a better understanding of the reality of the Dean scream speech. But getting there takes time and effort. Some of us are willing to spend the time, but most are not.

That same Pew report, released Jan. 11, that I mention above, says:
“Most Americans are not familiar with the ins- and-outs of the campaign. Just a third say they have heard a lot about Al Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean; another 36% have heard something about it. Even fewer (16%) have heard a lot about Dean’s widely reported comment about wanting to win the votes of “guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.” In fact, 59% say they have heard nothing about the controversy.”

So we have two problems: a press that is unwilling or maybe logistically unable to tell the whole story and an American public that doesn’t seem to care one way or another.