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Keller @ Large: Voters Are Getting Informed And Involved

BOSTON (CBS) - If you allow the bad news about our culture to overwhelm you, it's easy to come to the conclusion that things are bad and only going to get worse.

You know what I mean – the evidence that surrounds us of ignorance, apathy, and obliviousness to what's going on, reflected in low voter turnout and degraded public discourse.

It's enough to make you want to burrow under the covers and never come out.

But wait a second – here's some news that may persuade you there's still hope.

The Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate has commissioned a poll that has some bad news in it – only two in ten Americans can name their two US Senators.

But for once, the bad news is a footnote.

The poll finds that over the past two months, 51-percent of those surveyed have taken some kind of concrete action to "influence the government." The most popular forms of action – posting to social media, boycotting a company, emailing Members of Congress, donating money to a policy group.

The poll doesn't specify which party or political positions this activism is on behalf of, but it doesn't matter.

People are engaged, and that is always better than leaving things to be hashed out by our overlords.

And get this – most Americans "trust the media to provide accurate political reports."

Three times more people trust the news they get from TV than believe what they hear on talk radio. And only two percent say they don't trust any media.

Yes, there's hope for the future, for a better informed electorate that's not just going to roll over and play dead.

Maybe it is worth getting out of bed in the morning after all.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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