Sorting the US population in terms of levels of political engagement
I’m posing this question for general discussion: What levels of engagement with politics and social policy can be found in the current adult population of the US?
Here are four definitions. What’s your estimate of what percentage of the adult population (18+) fits into each?
Highly Engaged
People at this level spend a great deal of time reading about politics and/or watching politically-oriented media. Note that these people don’t necessarily have accurate information about political issues: some of them get most of their information from Fox News and Facebook posts. But they are highly engaged with political discourse in one wary or another.
Moderately Engaged
These are people who pay attention to politics and social policy rather intermittently, but they do pay attention. They probably could correctly identify the jobs currently held by Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.
Weakly Engaged
These are people who pay little attention to politics and social policy, and have very thin knowledge about the American political system in general. They might or might not know that each state gets two senators. They might or might not know that the House of Representatives is currently controlled by the Democrats. They might or might not vote in a presidential election, depending. They get essentially all their political views from their broader social group, basically by osmosis.
Unengaged
These are people who are completely indifferent to politics and social policy questions in America today. They pay no attention to these topics, ever.
I have my seat of the pants estimates of what percentage of the population goes into each tranche, but I want to hear yours, along with any ideas people might have for shifting the right (meaning the left) people upwards on this spectrum.