I was reading my school newspaper the other day and came across an article addressing Barack Obama coming to Boise. Since my political candidate dropped out of the race I figured I should start reading up on other candidates, mainly Obama and Clinton. But to my surprise there was nothing in the article addressing any of Obama’s political views. And it made me really think about how our generation is casting their vote.
My campus has hundreds of fliers answering the question “Why are you voting for Obama?” not one of the answers has anything to do with political views. Here are a few examples: “I’m voting for Obama because he’ll be the first black President! Support the blacks!” “I’m voting for Obama because he’s a good speaker.” “I’m voting for Obama because he’s young and it’s about time to get some new blood in Washington.” There are some Clinton supporters as well and their argument runs along the line of first Female President.
Do these people even know what they are voting for? So what if Obama is black, a good speaker, and young? Just because he’s charismatic is not a good reason to vote for someone. In fact the idea of voting based on appearance seems very high school. Basically a really big prom that the entire nation is invited to and there is only one royalty, king or queen, take your pick.
Most of our generation is now in college and we should be able to make rational decisions based on facts. Now I’m not saying that we should know everything about Obama’s political campaign, in fact I’m pretty ignorant since Romney dropped out. But a little bit of knowledge of what we are voting for would be nice. The question “Why are you voting for Obama?” should be answered with “I’m voting for Obama because he wants to end the war in Iraq and I support the way he is going to do it.” Or “Obama supports public education” (I’m not sure if he does or not).
Learn about your candidates; know their views and how they will handle issues that will arise in their four year term. Don’t just vote for them because they are black or female. America will always be here, and right now we have bigger issues than firsts for the Presidency.
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I'm sceptical of every runner up. It is way to early to decide right now because you never know who is lying to win you over. I can't believe that people would vote for Obama because he's black, or vote for hillary just because she would be the first woman as president. None of these things are important. Why not look at who is going to do better for our country as a whole? So many people are struggling adn i feel like we're just running around in circles like a chicken with her head cut off!
I still don't know too much about these runner ups but I've been trying to keep up on what they say and how they act. I just hope these people who say those things will vote for who is right, or the lesser evils out of everyone than vote for them by their appearance, or heritage!