Helping people understand public policy versus fostering an environment of disengagement

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit goes the saying.  Using the US government shutdown as an extreme example, the American People hear politicians blaming everyone else for the problems they helped create while regurgitating the same few phrases over and over again until their constitutes just accept them as fact, even when the facts are to the contrary.  Instead of helping individuals understand what needs a legislative effort is trying address and the potential impact of those public policy changes, our political leaders focus on demonizing those who disagree with their stances and telling the American People that we are thoroughly against what the other guys are doing.  At their worst, our politicians want to overwhelm the American People, so we give up on public debate and let them do whatever they want.  A democracy can only function when its people are engaged in government and able to make informed decisions on public policy matters. 

The problem with disengage is self evident when looking at our government’s behavior over the past thirty or so years and the economic impact of that behavior.  The interests of the majority has been thoroughly ignored while the interests of those who have been engaged in government are over served at the expense of the common good,  Quite frankly, our political climate fosters disengage when we need greater public engagement to ensure the interests of the entire population are adequately addressed.  What the American People need is to understand how policies work, so we can come to our own conclusions as to whether specific policies are good or bad.  We need our leaders to present the positives and negatives of all options so we can choose which policies serve our interests, even when our representatives do not support alternatives.  We do not need them telling us what we should support or boycott; they need to listen to our needs and support policies that reflect those interests.  Moreover, they need to find solutions instead of just bashing faulted options.  This ongoing shutdown demonstrates they are not doing this.