Palin Rally

The Palin Rally was an awesome experience (even though the weather was bad). I think its awesome that both the Democratic and Republican parties held rallies in such a small town like Fredericksburg because a lot of people I know that have gone to have a political rally have had at least some type of commute to deal with. With that being said, the rally also turned out to be just as I expected. Deep down it was just a bunch of people screaming "SARAH!!!!" over and over and again. Honestly... I've found these political rallies (even the RNC and DNC) to be slightly barbaric. I also found it interesting how many people that attended the rally were so one-sided. While waiting in line, Landon was talking about the Obama rally and someone in front of him turned around and got really nasty with him, which I thought to be really immature. I really think people should be more open-minded with others' beliefs... isn't that one of the main ideas that this country is founded on?

Should the voting age be lowered?

I really don't think it should be lowered. It seems to me that age is one of the more commonly debated aspects of every controversial topic, but I don't think it's really that important lower age restrictions or even raise them for that matter. In terms of voting, I don't feel there would be a large turnout of 16 year olds on election day, even if the age restriction was lowered. Politics is one of those things that we become more immersed in as we mature. At a younger age we understand the concept of having a president, but we aren't affected enough to formulate serious ideas about a presidential candidate. I think 18 is a good age to vote because it allows for the voter to have a much more opinion...it's as simple as that. I also think this is the reason Government classes are offered to seniors in high school. If anything, I would say that the age could be lowered to 17, but I don't think lowering the restriction just one year would change the turnout that much.

Should the Electoral College be Reformed?

1st Answer: I said no. I originally made this decision because I'm not very aware of the problems that our election process. I have been learning so much more about our country's election process this year, and thus am a little bit more able to point out some problems I have with it. Up until recently I always just assumed that during the time of an election the American people would simply just check the box next to the name of whoever they were voting for and at the end of the day the majority would win. This is the case, but as I've discovered the whole process is a little bit more complex than that. Its the electoral votes that confuse me the most... apparently George W. Bush had received less votes from the people but still won the election? That doesn't seem right...

2nd Answer:Yes. I said yes because of the whole situation of electoral votes being the final say in a popular election. I don't really agree with that. Something for me to consider however is that America is not a complete democracy... I thought that we were a democracy, but apparently our government just have some democratic characteristics? That kind of changes my opinion seeing that my original answer was biased from the idea of us being a true democracy.

3rd Answer: I said no. I simply figured that things have been working pretty well for the most part right now, so why should we reform the way our country's government works? Hasn't our government been one of the things that we are the most proud of?
4th Answer: I still said no. This argument is getting a little confusing.

5th Answer: I still said no because I accept that nothing can ever be truly perfect. No matter what I would have said this website would have disagreed. I believe that there will always be discrepancies in every government that exists because thats just the way we are. Seeing that government plays a large role in all our lives, it would be only natural for us to try and criticize anything that has control over us in any way. That, to me, is human nature.

Interest Group Participation

Much has already been done to try and make interest groups as fair and as equal as possible... but I think the real problem is that there are sooooo many of them. I understand that having the ability to start up an interest group is one of the main aspects of our constitutional right, but it is extremely difficult to have both equal opportunity and control over a very wide range of groups that focuses on many different things that vary in importance.

Midterm Blog

Even after learning so much about both politics and the presidential campaign, I still would have to say that I don't have a definite answer for who I would vote for. When it boils down to it, I'm really not overly-impressed with anyone of the candidates in particular. I both agree with some of their beliefs and disagree as well... for the sake of this blog however, I admit that I would probably end up voting for Obama. I just feel that, between the two, he would be the best leader to have. Though he doesn't have much of what McCain would call a "track-record", he seems to offer more of what I agree with in terms of the war in Iraq and the safety of our environment. Another thing that I want to point out is that it's possible I'm being slightly blinded by his seemingly sincere words of leadership. There is no doubt about it that this man is a leader, and one thing that I always notice about him is that to me he looks presidential. I know that looks can be deceptive, but it is still important to note that the way he presents himself reflects on how much I trust him. There are also things about his policies that other people strongly disagree with, and I simply don't have to deal with... things such as raising taxes. Some people have a serious problem with that, but I don't have to as much because I don't have to pay taxes yet.

2nd Presidential Debate

I really wasn't impressed with last night's debate. I had high hopes for it mainly because of I thought that the "open ended" approach would shed some new information on the candidates. Sadly, I didn't hear anything new... I didn't necessarily think that the questions were bad, but they probably could have been better. I understand that both the candidates have to play dirty to some extent, but I really find it immature when McCain says that Obama signed off on this way back when or when Obama tells us that McCain voted for something and thus he can't lead the country. The whole thing is just getting a little repetitive to me, and I'm ready for the actual election to commence. On a positive note... I did like the variety between the moderator asking the questions as well as the audience. I thought that it was pretty balanced.

VP Debate

I watched about an hour of the debate last night, and from what I got out of it, I can't say if there was a definite winner. If I had to choose, I would say that Biden was the most grounded, but at the same time Palin surpassed my expectations. The biggest problem I had with the debate was how the questions were addressed. Neither of the two candidates seemed to actually answer the questions, and they constantly seemed to be going around in circles...