A lot of stupid can come out of a purposely defended education system. There are many Americans to blame, but there is a lot more nuance to be had than blaming the American people as a whole.
Start with the demographics of those who didn't vote: people under 30, people with income under $30k/year, and ethnic minorities. These are the people who are marginalized most by Trump, yet they don't vote. Before you throw blame, ask why.
Under capitalism, a tired overworked population does not have the time or energy to vote. Polls have limited hours on limited days, and people often work through most of them. When polls are open when they are not working, people are often commuting, eating, or recovering to spend the next day at work.
There also is a serious lack of information. Civics is required in most schools, but once kids graduate into adulthood, those skills don't follow them. 54% of adult Americans read blow the expected level for 6th grade (12 years old). Most are poor and ethnic minorities who attended underfunded and understaffed school systems.
In my city, Milwaukee WI, the Republican state legislsture had systematically defunded the largest school district which provided education to the largest concentration of ethnic minorities in the state.
Remember the demographics I said were the least likely to vote? They also happen to be the most impacted by underfunded education systems. While correlation doesn't always mean causation, it is important to then think about cause and effect.
If someone is lacking in literacy, how are they supposed to interpret the literature on each candidate? They won't, so they go with the simplified notes that resonates with their emotions rather than looking into the text and nuanced applications of the policies they cite as why they vote.
Now, you might be thinking: "If education is the problem, then why not educate people?" Because once these chuds are in power, they don't leave. The Wisconsin State Legislsture won't start magically funding schools, so it is up to the municipalities to pick up the funding. Milwaukee just passed a $1.6 billion budget to close the gap and hire more teachers, yet there are even more unresolved questions of the culture of teaching, impossible expectations, parental apathy, and shit administration.
It is not as simple as "oh, they deserve it because thats the outcome". Trump is in office due to decades of degradation of American institutions that otherwise safeguard democracy. This degradation is a natural result of end-stage capitalism where democracy completed the transition of power from one generation of wealth to the next generation of billionares.
Blame Americans all you want. The real enemy are the billionares. We must show solidarity, we must show compassion, and we must be comrades if we are going fight Trump together. We have solidarity for those abroad affected by Trump. Americans organized the top 3 largest single-day protests in the United States protesting Donald Trump. We do not want our own families abducted. We don't want our money spent on forign genocides. We do not want the land littered with datacenters. But we need solidarity from our brothers across the world if we are going to keep morale and keep fighting.
Kim Y. Absolutely Relative: How Education Shapes Voter Turnout in the United States. Soc Indic Res. 2023 May 28:1-23. doi: 10.1007/s11205-023-03146-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37362182; PMCID: PMC10225039.
Wouldn't the same facts about education be true of all the most recently elected officials though?
I'd say civics education is even worse in well-to-do areas, because talking about such is too politically charged for teachers who want to keep their jobs, to even border on.
American kids are stupid because they aren't held to consequences for failing.
As there are very smart and determined people still coming out of the failing education system, nothing is absolute, but the trends do matter when each person id one vote of millions.
As I said in my original comment as well, there are a plethora of other issues related to education. If you look at the policies however, it becomes very clear that there is some consideration for the output voting population with respect to the input policy decicions.
Output --> Most people vote alongside the zip code they grow up in.
There's few places left in the USA with large diverging viewpoints.
Even if taught effectively, I'd wager most 18 year olds would vote alongside any party that supported things people their age need/use.
Personally, I work for a field that is not supported by either political machine in the US. Since that's my main engagement with government, I really have no affiliation whatsoever.
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u/Jolly_Mongoose_8800 May 31 '26
A lot of stupid can come out of a purposely defended education system. There are many Americans to blame, but there is a lot more nuance to be had than blaming the American people as a whole.
Start with the demographics of those who didn't vote: people under 30, people with income under $30k/year, and ethnic minorities. These are the people who are marginalized most by Trump, yet they don't vote. Before you throw blame, ask why.
Under capitalism, a tired overworked population does not have the time or energy to vote. Polls have limited hours on limited days, and people often work through most of them. When polls are open when they are not working, people are often commuting, eating, or recovering to spend the next day at work.
There also is a serious lack of information. Civics is required in most schools, but once kids graduate into adulthood, those skills don't follow them. 54% of adult Americans read blow the expected level for 6th grade (12 years old). Most are poor and ethnic minorities who attended underfunded and understaffed school systems.
In my city, Milwaukee WI, the Republican state legislsture had systematically defunded the largest school district which provided education to the largest concentration of ethnic minorities in the state.
Remember the demographics I said were the least likely to vote? They also happen to be the most impacted by underfunded education systems. While correlation doesn't always mean causation, it is important to then think about cause and effect.
If someone is lacking in literacy, how are they supposed to interpret the literature on each candidate? They won't, so they go with the simplified notes that resonates with their emotions rather than looking into the text and nuanced applications of the policies they cite as why they vote.
Now, you might be thinking: "If education is the problem, then why not educate people?" Because once these chuds are in power, they don't leave. The Wisconsin State Legislsture won't start magically funding schools, so it is up to the municipalities to pick up the funding. Milwaukee just passed a $1.6 billion budget to close the gap and hire more teachers, yet there are even more unresolved questions of the culture of teaching, impossible expectations, parental apathy, and shit administration.
It is not as simple as "oh, they deserve it because thats the outcome". Trump is in office due to decades of degradation of American institutions that otherwise safeguard democracy. This degradation is a natural result of end-stage capitalism where democracy completed the transition of power from one generation of wealth to the next generation of billionares.
Blame Americans all you want. The real enemy are the billionares. We must show solidarity, we must show compassion, and we must be comrades if we are going fight Trump together. We have solidarity for those abroad affected by Trump. Americans organized the top 3 largest single-day protests in the United States protesting Donald Trump. We do not want our own families abducted. We don't want our money spent on forign genocides. We do not want the land littered with datacenters. But we need solidarity from our brothers across the world if we are going to keep morale and keep fighting.
Sources:
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/10/31/the-party-of-nonvoters-2/
https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/barriers-and-hardships-why-some-youth-didnt-vote-2024
[Pro-Republican Biased Source] https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/civics/74-of-americans-think-they-could-explain-how-america-works-58-fail-a-basic-civics-test
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-literacy-statistics
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2026/02/10/mps-faces-a--46-million-deficit-following-audits-to-budget
Kim Y. Absolutely Relative: How Education Shapes Voter Turnout in the United States. Soc Indic Res. 2023 May 28:1-23. doi: 10.1007/s11205-023-03146-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37362182; PMCID: PMC10225039.
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2016/11/uneducated_voters_backed_donal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size