the prompt is what our political ideology is and what we think the role citizens should play in government.

I don't have room for an introduction. The limit is 600 words and that's like 598, but I might revise that statement about the vote.

[addendum-well, the statistics in my book show that it's still nowhere near the levels of the mid 1880s, but it stops at 2004 :] but I don't feel like doing research on it xD]