Inside the crux of dwindling civic participation lies an unbeknownst revelation. America’s nationalistic flames of mobilization are blown out. Its citizens have become an embodiment of enduring apathy. Fatigue has set in. We have become civic dropouts. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” (President John F. Kennedy). Despite the pervasive idealism imbedded within these words, this pronouncement symbolizes the glorious sentiments of the past. Our social bonds have unraveled themselves since the post WWII era (Putnam, 54). The communal ties of interconnectedness have been frayed as well. Technological innovations, such as the TV and the computer, have exacerbated social isolation; therefore, leaving …show more content…
As a matter of fact, today’s voters’ civic test scores are the same as their elders. Therefore, we are the most educated generation. We are the most resourceful cohort of eligible voters. We are the most skillful citizens this nation has ever seen (Putnam, 64). Yet, year after year, we see cataclysmic declines in political involvement. “The organizational eruption between the 1960s and the 1990s represented a proliferation of letterheads, not a boom in grassroots participation” (Putnam, 49) Sprouting organizations in our Washington, D.C. heightened the social capital of the Washington elite. Although this is true, more organizations do not imply more group related citizen involvement (Putnam, 52) Corporations are not our relatives, friends, or neighbors. As a result, community relations were hit hardest where it mattered the most- in the cities and towns of laypeople. “In the middle years of the twentieth century the local PTA was among the most common of community organizations.” (Putnam, 55). “This success – membership encompassing nearly eventually nearly half of the families in America - was due no doubt to the fact that this form of interconnectedness appealed to millions who wanted to be engaged in some way in their children’s education.” (Putnam,