People today are often voting while not fully understanding where change occurs and by whom. People see a Republican and say, "Oh no! Bush is a Republican so we need a Democrat in office next if we want change." They fail to realize that even the next President might be of the same party; every candidate is different and has different priorities for his term. Also, voters today do not realize that the president is not in total control. Congress balances him out, as does the Supreme Court. Therefore, while a Republican is currently in the Oval Office, he is countered by a Democrat-controlled Congress. Congress is sometimes in opposition of what the president wants, and sometimes pursues its own agenda for the country.
Another reason people often vote for the wrong reasons are because they see a face or hear a name they recognize and vote for them. They like the image of that person, but do not pay attention to what that person really stands for or the issues they support. For example, opening borders, pro-life/pro-choice, or giving money earned by one to others who do not work at all. These are the issues the people should know before they vote. Often people do not take the time to listen to the debates or research who is running. This occasionally results in the election of people who are not suited for their job.
4 comments:
As highly unbiased as this post was, I would also like to point out that there is another factor included in being a "smart" voter.
As opposed to just voting for Obama to get the Republicans out, it is concerning to me that 9% of Republicans are voting for McCain simply because he's the new Republican frontman.
Also, simply because someone is voting for Obama does not mean they are unaware that he is pro-life, etc. The beauty of the informed vote is that the voter sees these as things that DO work (because, as I'm sure you understand, you're views are not the only or consistently correct ones) , and is basing their decision off of these things.
I do certainly agree that people should be doing research and voting for the right, informed reasons. Voting based off of first impressions or simply to vote party lines seems, to me, a terrible waste of a vote. Just making sure that readers of this post understand that it is not only Democrats who may be making this mistake, and that the Republican party does not necessarily hold all the correct answers.
We talked about this in class today. Some people seem to only look at the party associated with the candidate, not the indivual itself. Yes the candidate belongs to a party, but that does not mean they will follow the party's ideals exactly as they are listed. Candidates can do things differently then they are expected, which makes it very important to research into each candidate and know how each of them stand on different issues.
Just look at John McCain. He has voted countless times against his party. You cannot think just because a person belongs to that party, that they are going to be on that party's side all the time.
ITS too bad that people do eenie meeenie mineee moe when they choose president. It's too bad we cant educate everyone about politics and our government.
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