Mobilization of Citizens to Vote - Essay Example

I was involved in the indirect mobilization of citizens to vote. I acted as an instrument to encourage or influence people to be involved in the process of voting. This was done through three processes (Jamieson 67). The first one was through interest formation where I tried to create interest in the people by explaining the importance of being involved in the voting process. Community building was the next process where I gathered a couple of people to spread the message of the importance of voting. Employing a means of action was the last way of participating in elections.
The motivating factor in my participation in the campaign is the desire for change. Previously, there has been a low voter turnout in the United States probably due to ignorance of the importance of voting. As a result, we have had poor policies on important aspects of our lives such as health and employment. When I heard that there is a leader with different policies on the same aspects, I felt the need to mobilize many people so that we could get the much-needed change. It was up to me to educate people on how viable this leader was and the need to vote for him.
I expected that this leader would bring change. This was due to a critical revision of his policies in comparison to those of opponent candidates. He seemed to be able to effect change, especially in the most important sectors of my life. I did not have any previous formal political training in the past. I did not worry to involve myself because of my age, culture, and ignorance. In essence, I was quite young to figure out the weight of participating in politics. Ignorance played a part because I never saw the importance of voting or even participating in any political campaign. The only type of training I got was on the policies, which were clearly explained to us during the campaign meetings.
The overall experience was exhilarating with me gaining more knowledge on how policies for campaigns were made. I was also able to use my gift as a leader and the overall result is that more people are now enlightened on policies put forward by some of their leaders. The challenges I faced were mainly cultural. I found it difficult to mobilize people who were not from my race and culture due to social barriers. The most important lesson I learned was esprit de corps, meaning unity, more united people are usually stronger in all aspects (Woodward 90). Ignorance is also the mother of all problems. Read More