{"id":114580,"date":"2016-01-06T10:24:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=114580"},"modified":"2016-01-06T18:25:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T01:25:58","slug":"move-political-participation-from-online-forums-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/move-political-participation-from-online-forums-into-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Move political participation from online forums into action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Participatory<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Participatory democracy is not only showing up to polls, but also encouraging thoughtful discussion on important issues, as well as donating time and money to organizations that support a healthy democratic process.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Presidential election cycles seem to arrive\u00a0earlier each round, much like the holiday shopping season. As with every presidential election cycle, voters dust off their voting identification cards and ready themselves to perform their civic duty.<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel<\/a>

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Gabriel Barrio<\/p><\/div>\n

More than active participation in the democratic political process, the majority of political engagement happens through conversation in social media circles and through printed press editorials.\u00a0Participatory democracy has become an online argument rife with name-calling and political polarization.<\/p>\n

The majority of American voters consider democracy to be a passive act of voting once every four years or every two years during contested races. The excitement, vitriol and participation of the American voter is generally centered around the presidential race.<\/p>\n

No matter how exciting or terrifying a new candidate is for either of the two major parties, the electorate that shows up and shows out will likely fall along statistical averages.\u00a0This provides for an average of 55 percent voter turnout for presidential runs and even less voter turnout during midterm elections, averaging\u00a0around 45 percent.<\/p>\n

What action looks like<\/h3>\n

As American voters, it is important that political participation move from online forums and into action. Races can be\u00a0won by the amount of money, volunteer time and grassroots support candidates\u00a0employ. Currently the most\u00a0active voters are the ones who have always decided\u00a0races, leaving out many voices in the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

It begs the question: How can political solutions and a democracy work without the active participation of the voter?<\/p>\n

The political process in this election cycle has become\u00a0similar to reality television. Although it may not be the case, one could definitely posit that the current theatrics in media coverage of this 2016 presidential election may be the only way to engage the American voter.\u00a0What should be a respectful discourse of ideals and values is instead a media circus.<\/p>\n

Instead of looking to a presidential candidate to solve the nation\u2019s problems, the electorate should be more active now than ever before. The voter should be just as invigorated around congressional, midterm, gubernatorial, and local elections.<\/p>\n

We as citizens of a great and powerful nation have the ability to influence our communities through participatory democracy. Participatory democracy is not only showing up to polls, but also encouraging thoughtful discussion on important issues, as well as donating time and money to organizations that support a healthy democratic process.<\/p>\n

The only way to find a collective solution<\/h3>\n

The populace of this country needs to move beyond cherry picking news articles and conversations that further isolate political views and enter into a dialogue with neighbors in hopes to achieve a\u00a0bipartisan\u00a0society and\u00a0political process.<\/p>\n

After the presidential election, serious matters of economic prosperity, national security, environment, and the unification of a people divided will remain. No one candidate for office will solve all the issues at hand — instead, these issues are relegated to the American populace, proving that more than ever participatory democracy is the only way to find a collective solution to societal ills.<\/p>\n

Barrio is a native New Mexican and recent NMSU graduate. He has been covering Southwest music culture through several online music publications<\/a> and has a passion for political activism and public discourse.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We need to enter into a dialogue with neighbors in hopes to achieve a bipartisan society and political process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[708,250],"class_list":["post-114580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2016-election","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}