I found that on Digg.com today and it reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend recently about Americans, "democracy," and the accesibility of politics done behind closed doors in a language the average person living in America would be hard pressed to understand.
This friend asked me if it was a problem of American politics being inaccesible - geographically and academically or that the average American simply does not care to get involved in politics? All you would have to do is compare the voter turnout to the number of people who voted for American Idol to see that Americans are seemingly disinterested in politics.
There are the conspiracy theorists among us that believe the American political hegemony and the media monopolies are in bed with one another and this may be the very reason why people know more about Britney, Lindsay, and Paris than they do Hilary, Barack, and John.
Having seen this list and noticed this trend among my own friends and family I am left to wonder what came first:
The futile media and the culture it created
or
American almost entire disinterest in all things political?
Of real interest is the fact that most of us would think that if the sheer amount of the media's coverage of 9-11 and the ensuing "war on terror" throughout 2001 lead to increased interest in Osama Bin Laden, the World Trade Center, and the Taliban then the LACK of coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the United States soldiers on both battlefields would lead to an even greater interest in the wars and their effects on the American people if not the global community.
DISCUSS.
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There's something to be said for "leaving it to the professionals", even with voting.
There's also little evidence that voters in more politically engaged societies tend to pick better leaders.