Throughout the history of the U.S., voting has been a very important part of the way that our country is run, because voting has been very important so then has been public opinion. The founding fathers were afraid of the opinions of a misinformed or ignorant public. Due to this fear they set up checks on public opinion such as the Electoral College. In this way it shows that in the 1700s as in the present that public opinion is very important and confusing. The authors Walter Lippmann, V.O. Key, Jr., George Gallup, James Prothro, and Charles Grigg all believe that public opinion is very important for the effect it as on the government.
             In Walter Lippmann's article "The Pseudo-Environment of Public Opinion" Lippmann believes that public opinion is very important because it can negatively sway how the government acts. He believes that public opinion can be swayed all too easily by the passions. In addition to that, Lippmann also believes that the public's perception of the world is not accurate in relation to the way that the world really is. Lippmann believes that the general public is ignorant so that for public opinion to be valid the public would have to be better educated. This article indicates that even if public opinion is misinformed or swayed by the passions it is still very important because of the impact it has on government.
             V.O. Key, Jr. also wrote an article on public opinion called "Leaders Mold and Influence Public Opinion." This article is about how the country's leaders shape public opinion. Key agrees in general with Lippmann in that public opinion can negatively affect government because the public is generally misinformed, ignorant, and that there beliefs are based on a pseudo-environment. Key believes that the leaders of this country should not strictly follow the will of the masses, and that the leaders should be the ones doing the leading. Contrary to Lippmann, Key writes that the public is
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