Lately, in my Government class, my teacher mentions the Presidential Election at least four out of five days a week. And the chapter we are reading in our textbook contributes a lot to the upcoming election as well.
The textbook, as well as my teacher, brings up a good point that makes me wonder:
Are the younger generations of today ready to vote?
You see, what we are learning in class right now is a new term called political socialization .
Political Socialization, in simpler words, means that it is the process in which a person or an individual acquires his or her knowledge through certain factors regarding his or her political world. For example, some of the most common factors to this are the individual's family, the media, and schools. There can also be other things that contribute to the decisions an individual makes, however, those factors mentioned are found in a person's daily life.
And this is relevant, because the younger generations spend most of their time with parents. If not their parents, then at school, and if not at school, then they are at home or at a friend's house watching television, listening to the radio, or surfing the internet (media). And all this time, the young adult does not bother to actually watch the news on the television, or listen to the debates on the radio, or surf the news on the internet. Instead, the young adult, or i should say the younger generation, watches Nickelodeon or listens to radio stations that only mention news about celebrities, or only uses myspace or plays games on the internet.
I am not saying there is something wrong with doing all that. I myself do that as well, but it is wrong when a person is old enough to vote and still knows nothing about the candidates or what the candidate's beliefs are. Half the time, the younger generations only base their votes on the ethnicity, religion, and appearances of a candidate, and not the candidate's moral values. I am guilty of all this myself. I am almost old enough to vote, and I am barely becoming interested in politics. It is sad to say, but it is true. I recently realized that although I am not old enough to vote yet, all the decisions my nation makes will definitely affect me as a U.S. Citizen. That's why I wish to bring this into the attention of everybody.
If you are old enough to vote, do not base your vote on the ethnicity, religion, ,past, etc... of a candidate, instead , ask yourself the question "What will this candidate do for me and the nation if they do become president?"
Would you agree?
Honestly? I think there are a lot of adults who don't go out and do the research on the candidate's positions, either. The reason we have a representative system instead of direct democracy is that we, as citizens, are not expected to be able to make intelligent and informed decisions about every issue - heck, we're not even expected to really care about most issues. The Founding Fathers made it very simple - pick the guy you want to make the decisions, then get mad and write letters to Congress when he screws up on something you care about. And honestly, it works out well enough.
So yeah, I think young people are mature enough to vote, though I sincerely hope that they take the time to look into the issues, now that we're in an information age where finding a candidate's record takes a grand total of two minutes on Google.
I agree with the other comment that as made to you. You do have an excellent point though do not get me wrong. But many ADULTS i can say in this particular election is basing their decision on race. Many young adults I speak to in my college class all are focusing on the primary issue. Which is mainly the economy. No it should not be based on race and I wrote a blog about that. But what more cab you say. I am voting for I hope what becomes the first black president. I beleive he is much smarter and less childish than mccain. Obama is an amazing man who has very good plans for this country considering I have watched every debate known to this land.