How much do you know about the running presidential candidates? Do you know each persons platform? Their political party? Their views on issues that you think are important? and How will you decide who you are voting for?
I've asked many people my age this question, and none of them could answer every question confindetly enough for me to believe they were ready to vote!
many teenagers who are old enough to vote, vote simply because they can, without thinking it over. They vote for whoever is most popular, for who their parents are voting for, who their friends are voting for, or for whoever has the Chuck Norris in their comercials......well that would all be good and well if we were voting for 'America's Next Top Celebrity Endorsements' but we arnt. We are voting for the PRESIDENT! the person who will be making the most importnat choices in our country! the person who will either push us deeper into war or pull us out of war! the person who will either cause you to jump for joy by lowering gas prices or the person you will curse to the deepest depths of the underworld for letting gas prices reach $8 a gallon! It is all too clear that most people do not have a real reason for voting for someone. Most people go with "I'm a Democrat, so im voting for the Democrat" or "im a republican, so im voting for a republican" but thats an AWFUL way to pick the person you are voting for! You need to know what their platform is, what issues are most important to you, and the candidates stance on those issues. you need to know how their presidency will effect your present life, and your future.
In my senior government class, we went over a long list of issues and how the running cadidates felt/acted on each issue. most of the kids in my class had no idea how htey felt about the issues (as far as was their opinion democratic or republican) and they had no idea how the presidential candidates felt about the issues, and yet, ALL of them planned to vote, and 18 out of 20 of them said they already knew how they were going to vote!
I believe that people should know more about the candidates (aside from what it says in the 2min. opposing.-party-bashing-t.v.-adds they see between LOST and Survivor) before they vote. It only hurts the voter, and everyone else if someone votes with out knowing who they are voting for!
what do you think? is the American population voting just because it is their right to? Do they really know as much as they like to think they do? or are they just pretending to know what they are doing?
The United States of Stupidity
By IrishRebel - Posted on February 11th, 2008
Tagged: america
• boys
• elections
• girls
• Hillary Clinton
• kids
• people
• polotics
• President
• teens
• USA
• Effective government
Your post alludes to the essential problem with the American system of government: the tension between democracy and actually running a system of government. The reason we have a republic and not a direct democracy is because we're too big. There aren't enough people who are informed and educated enough AND care enough for direct democracy to work properly. However, concentrating power in the hands of the informed, educated, and caring smacks of dictatorship and oligarchy, two "aristocratic" forms of government that we are strongly against, and for good reason, since they have in the past been abused. Supposedly our "wonderful" public education system is turning out millions of good, well-educated American citizens, but even the best civics/government teacher in the world can't force kids to pay attention and actually learn, so we're stuck with a huge, partially uneducated, partially uncaring electorate, only 42% of which actually shows up to vote anyway.
Congress has as much or more to do with most of the decisions that you mentioned. While the President can greatly influence those decisions, he doesn't make them. Congress declares war and funds it. Congress is also the branch of government with power to regulate the economy and gas prices. The President can back proposals, or introduce budgets, and he is the main foreign relations figure, which has a big impact on whether or not war seems necessary, but Congress holds a lot of that power. The President is easy to focus on because he is a single person (lord knows that I think the President has a lot more power than he really does most of the time), but it's important to keep in mind where certain governmental powers lie.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principles."
You are right that everyone who is eligible to vote should know who the candidate is that they are voting for and what they believe, but for the concern of only voting for Republicans or Democrats if you are one is not an unreasonable view. Before this election there was more of a clean break in views between Democrats and Republicans, but there are still issues that are strictly Republican or Democrat. I feel that if a voter believes say what a Democrat believes, then they should vote for a Democratic candidate in the election in November.
Now the primaries is a completely different story. Say there was a pretty dominant Democratic figure in your state, but there was a pretty close race between two Republican candidates. To me it would make more sense to vote for a Republican candidate in this situation that would not be able to bet the Democratic candidate of my choosing. Why vote for someone who is already expected to win by a fairly large margin? Sometimes you cannot tell who is in the lead though, which makes things even more confusing.
i dont mean that its bad for you to vote for some one because you are also of hte same political party, i mean, obviously you want someone of the same political party as yourself to win, what i ment is, you shouldnt use their political party alone to decide who you will vote for. you said it your self, if you agree with them, then you should vote for them.
How much do you know about the running presidential candidates?
A lot. About each potential candidate.
Do you know each persons platform?
Considering there are only like two platforms, yes. Republican/Democrat. And a diappointing third party.
Their views on issues that you think are important?
All the issues are important. http://www.2decide.com/table.htm is a good source.
How will you decide who you are voting for?
I will not vote for McCain, Obama, Guiliani, Clinton, Edwards, or Huckabee. Ron Paul all the way, even if I don't agree with all his beliefs.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
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glad to hear you know who you're voting for, and why! congrats on that! thanks for hte link, i already know my stance on issues and what not though,but im sure it'll help out others.
and yes, issues are important, but you must figure out which is you're number one, and so on, so that way if you agree with more than one candidate on a few issues, you can pick a different issues to look at to help you make your choice, however since you've clearly already picked a candidate, thats not really an issue for you like it might be for others.
again, congrats on knowing your stuff! happy voting!
I will admit that before this presidential election i rarely paid attention to anything that was going on in this country if it didn't directly effect me. Now that everything is so messed up and who will be the next leader of our country really is a BIG DEAL...i feel like my eyes have been opened up for like the first time. I want to know what's going on in the world around me...and now i make a conscious effort to make sure that i am up to date on everything. I know as much as i possibly can about the candidates and who's up in polls and what not. I think that this year is truly going to engage alot of teens and be a wake up call like it was for me.