Guest Blogger: Emily B.
Welcome back from MEA, I hope you were all thinking of the wonderful class of APLG. I know I was (*wink wink*). Now that we have the big test done, we all now know what these tests are going to be like. We know how to study and what to study. What I'm going to discuss is what we talked about today in Government.
We were all asked to pull out a sheet of paper and draw Minnesota. This, I might add, is harder for some. Then we were asked to write down the five largest cities within the state. While Kayla and I were trying to determine which the five largest were, I thought to myself how sad it is that we have know idea. Of course we got the first three, but after that we were lost. I thought, "We live in this state, but we have no idea what is going on and how it is growing," After we guessed the five largest cities we were asked the population of the state. Most of us have common sense so we were in the general ball park. Then we were asked how many congressional districts there were. I was stumped. My guess was 52. Some peoples were up in the hundreds. Some of us (um... me) had no idea what a congressional district was let alone how many there was. What does this say about the people in the state of Minnesota? You have to realize that our class is advanced, and half of us were lost. What about the people who never took an advanced class, dropped out of school, or never had the opportunities that we do? How do they vote correctly when they don't even know what they are voting for? Most of us are 18 or almost there. Are we ready to be able to vote? For goodness sakes I don't think I am, I just learned what a congressional district is.
posted by erdecker @ 7:18 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Very good point Emily. I suppose this is a very big influence for canidites to simply fling mud at each other and make apperances more important then actual politics. It is easy for a voter with little knowlege to vote for the canidate who looks the best and who they see the most on TV or the radio, that is why you know about Obama(who spent 730 million dollars) and McCain(who spent 333 millions dollars). MN residents can really improve there ability to vote inteligently by learning more about government and how it operates. Thank you Emily!
" thought to myself how sad it is that we have know idea."-Emily B.
And just think, Minnesota has one of the highest voting percentages in the nation between states. I will admit, our government is quite complex. This general lack of knowledge is a major factor of why name recognition, for better or worse, is an influential factor in elections. Although this gets into the general lack of in-depth involvement by the masses in politics.
Emily this is a great point and something I had spent the past few days thinking about as well. I know, personally, I had absolutely no idea what a congressional district was (the fact that I guessed there were eight was a LUCKY GUESS). I think this not only shows that people in Minnesota dont know and understand their govenment but the majority of the country most likely has no idea. I agree with Nathan when he speaks of name recognition; I feel that is all many of us have to go off of. I am 18 and don't see myself as knowledgeable enough to vote in the next election. But if those of us in AP Govt don't know enough, who does?
I agree also. I think that this is a big reason why many people think that either the voting age should be higher (which i, for the record, disagree with) or that people should have to take some kind of test to determine if they know enough about the government and the candidates to make a "real" vote. As much as I, and i'm sure many other people, would like to agree with the test idea, its still unconstitutional in my opinion. Everyone should have the right to vote, whether they know about the candidates or just vote for whoever looks the best to them. I also believe, however, that it's a voters job to do their own research on who they agree with most, and I think that applies to us, too. Its our job as voters (or almost voters) to find out the truth about the canditates (like the quote in the classroom says, If you don't read the news you are uninformed, but if you do, you are misinformed- Mark Twain). Basically, i agree with everyone here!
yeah Sam... I spelled the wrong "no"
Emily
I had heard that we had the electoral college because the stupid masses would then be represented by an intelligent few (fixing the problem of people being uninformed). I didn't know exactly how that worked, so I decided to find out. Upon investigation of this vein, I came upon this on the US electoral college's (NARA) website FAQ:
"Why do we still have the Electoral College?
The Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system.
Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process.
Many different proposals to alter the Presidential election process have been offered over the years, such as direct nation-wide election by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the States for ratification. Under the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States."
(http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#whyelectoralcollege)
So, basically, the electoral college is still around because it would be really hard to change it. So what purpose does it serve? is the rumor about preventing stupid elections true? I guess I'll just have to wait to find out...
Haha oh I enjoyed that :) I definitely think it is our duty as citizens of the U.S. to know about who represents us and to stay informed on current events. However, one of the liberties of the Unites States is that everyone can vote...and yes, that includes people who don't know a thing about politics, but want to vote just to exercise the right! I know there are ideas suggesting that voters take a quiz with basic facts about our country, and if they don't pass it with a certain percentage that they can't vote, but I disagree with that. People SHOULD care enough on to learn about their country on their own, and it would be taking away from the freedom of the U.S. to put restrictions on something such as electing a president.
Having the right to vote when you are eighteen is one of the many rights given to citizens, that makes America the country it is. Unfortunately the citizens of America don't use that right to the best of their abilities. The ability to vote is given so that elected officials will represent all the people, majority and minority. However, this doesn't happen when one, people who can vote don't vote, and two when they don't know what they are voting about. Kelly is right voters SHOULD want to learn about the country, but it is also their responsibility to know what they are voting for.
Emily- looking back on this blog post three months and many governmentlearningful days later, would you say you're any more qualified to vote than you were when you posted this?
Every once in a while I wonder about how different the government would be if people made informed decisions based on how well the candidates' values reflect their own, instead of just voting along party lines or first impressions.
Maybe the government wouldn't really be that different at all. Who knows?
All I know is that I'm a lot more qualified (though I'm still ineligible) to vote than I was coming into the class in September.
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