This whole election...from someone who doesn't pay attention

[Kyrui and Thrall]

Started when I was in my U.S. history class today, as usual, I was dozing off along with some other friends. I mean the teacher is pretty cool and all, but we were watching a movie about the first few presidental elections. I actually sat up and started to really think about it. I never really payed alot of attention to the elections since I even knew what it was. I know whos running and alot of stuff since I watch the news....Sometimes.

First thing I thought about was that alot of people had different views on different topics. I hear alot of arguements now and then about Bush and Kerry and their opinions on different subjects. One I hear alot about is "Gay Marrige". Bush thinks this is wrong, he says that marrige is between a man and a women who want to spend their lives together. Kerry agrees somewhat with this, but he also says that people have their own choice on what they do in their lives.

I don't really know what to think about this. I do respect the traditions of marrige but I also beleive if you are deeply in love even if its in a gay relanshinship you should make the choice. But then this got me thinking. Was does a marrige certificate actually represent for you? Your married and your life long partners. So...I don't really see a whole lot in that. This is just what I think, I know alot of other people think differently.

There is also alot of stuff going on with MTV, "Rock The Vote". Its trying to get more people to start voting, for something atleast. Should pay some attention to the elections, this choice can really affect your future life as an American. P.Diddy is really into this, I really respect him as a person for doing all this. "Vote or Die", Some of my teachers thinks its kind of harsh.

Its better to vote for something then to not vote at all and have no affect on what happens. Then this got me thinking even more. I have heard alot about election stuff and I don't know if its true or not but isnt their representatives and electorial votes or something? Does this mean a person's vote will count enough as it should?

I still don't really know what to think about all this voting. I'm going to start watching the news more and listen in class and other people's arguements.

When the movie was over, we were suppose to have a test on the movie, but I kept thinking about all this, so I guess I started the conversation that lasted the rest 1 hour of the class period. Alot of people had different views on different stuff, turned into a debate sort of. The teacher was really happy that we all thought about this at some time. He said if we wanted to, we could continue this and keep up with the election. Its pretty cool if you really think indeep about stuff.

 

[Pascal]

The issue over Gay Marriage is not actually over the right to get married. Gay people can currently already get married; there is nothing the government can do about that since it is a religious practice. What the issues is over, is the governments recognizing the marriage. Gay couples can not file joint tax returns, if one partner is in a hospital, the hospital dose not have to consider the other gay partner as a family member and deny access, most medical insurance companies will not recognize the partner as being a family member and will not allow joint coverage, though in most states that will not change even if the government does chooses to recognize them. It’s really a matter of Gay couples want to have the same freedom and chooses that a straight couples has, having the government recognize them is only a step in this direction, not a solution to the whole issues. The other side has a few different view points, but in general they feel homosexuality is wrong to begin with thus giving any form of legal recognition to it, is the same as validating it as being right.

To vote or not to vote is a matter of view point. In my view when you vote for somebody, what you are saying is you agree with this person, and that he/she represents your views. No matter if he/she actually does or does not represent your views. A really good example is some Republican friends of mine. They do not agree with Bush, and are upset with Bush, but they are voting for him yet again, because they do not agree with Kerry (mostly because he is a democrat). In my view point, it doesn’t matter what the actually persons views really are. They cast there vote for Bush, and thus they are accepting his views and are responsible for his views. No matter if they agree with it or not. Not everyone shares that view.

Electing a person is not the only way to get representation in our government, or change. Lobbyist groups, protests, writing a letter are all means to shape our government. The only true people who are wasting there rights are the ones who choose to do nothing at all or choose to cast a vote for some body they know nothing about, not the ones who only choose not to vote. To date no one who has actually been able to get on a state or federal voting ballad that represents enough of my views for me to vote for them. So instead I give my time and money to Lobbyist groups. I write letters to our elected representatives. I educate people on issues I find important rather than what is important to everyone else, if a person is trying to get on a ballad that I do agree with, I will assist in any way I possible can, even thou in most cases they are unable to do so. Thus I am taking part in our political processes with out actually casting a vote.

In most states (because it is actually up to each state) the popular vote (the peoples vote) is there to influence our elected representative when they cast the electoral vote, which is what actually determines who will be president. Legally there is nothing that says your elected representative has to vote the way the people vote. Thus the people can vote one way and the representatives can vote another way. Since the 2000 election a few states have passed election laws which tie the electoral vote back to the peoples vote, but this is being challenged in state courts already.
This is not an accurate description of how the system works, but a general idea. Read this site for the actually description.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6327343/

 

[Sculli]

If this stays flame free (hopefully!) it can remain here, otherwise I will have to lock this and you can continue discussion over at the flameboard, AMERICA VOTES 2004.

 

[Devi]

Re: This whole election...from someone who doesn't pay atten

There is also alot of stuff going on with MTV, "Rock The Vote". Its trying to get more people to start voting, for something atleast. Should pay some attention to the elections, this choice can really affect your future life as an American. P.Diddy is really into this, I really respect him as a person for doing all this. "Vote or Die", Some of my teachers thinks its kind of harsh.

As much as I respect (and I use the term loosely) Diddy for trying to get kids out to vote, I see one fundimental problem with it.....What happens when you have a a ton of un-informed voters hitting the poles? And to add to that they might not even be there cause they want to vote, but only because they think its' the "new cool thing". And to be honest a lot of Mtv generation is heavily influenced by the media. Thus the kind of "attack add heavey" campaigns will become more common place, and it will shift from the issuse to who can make a better a commmerical. Policital allignment is one of the huge problems in this country. A 2 party system is bound to exclude at least a few thousand people. And there's too much of "I'll vote a certain way because my party votes that way." Well I fall victim to this too. I don't like Bush or Kerry, but I gotta pick one or I'll be "throwing away" my vote.

My personal thoghts are that out political system is becoming a joke. It started when my state ousted our govener and replaced him with the govenator. I think a lot of his vote came from class mates who thought it would be funny to vote for him and that thought he could never win. Somewhere along the line politics stopped servering the poeople and started servering the campaing financers....which is all wrong, this country was founded on the basis of everyone should be able to do what they believe in (i.e gay marriage). I'm gonna stop here before I get on things like the partriot act and no child left beheind. Also I don't concider any of this "flame" material, if it' is concidered so please delete my post.

 

[alanon]

Is it possible that the "governator" was elected because people liked what he stood for and most people thought the old governor was terrible? It's not like arnold fell outta bed and into the governor's seat, he has been politcally involved for some time. He is not the first actor to go into politics either. (reagan anyone?)

As far as this presidential election goes, it appears to me that Bush stands on some unpopular positions and Kerry stands for EVERYTHING (it changes depending on who he's talking to). Given the choices, Bush will get my vote. Kerry just scares me. He reminds me too much of that presidential candidate from the old King movie "Dead Zone".