5 Myths About Those Civic-Minded, Deeply Informed Voters »
Posted By tdrapeau 1 year, 2 months ago in NewsOne thing both Democrats and Republicans agreed about in their vastly different conventions: The American voter will not only decide but decide wisely. But does the electorate really know what it's talking about? Rick Shenkman, associate professor of history at George Mason University and the author of "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter," reaffirms the claims in his book by debunking 5 myths of American Voters in this election year.
Read on if you are interested in whether voters in 2008 are smart (at least, smarter than in previous years), whether Jon Stewart's viewers are smarter than Bill O'Reilly's, and whether or not American voters are even paying attention to the news.
Note: If you have reached this story via AOL, welcome to Propeller! Every story here, including this one, has been posted by the Propeller community--and the same thing goes for the comments below. If this kind of social news experience appeals to you, you can learn more about joining Propeller here.
To bolster his arguments even further, Shenkman produced this video entitled "Just How Stupid Are Americans?"
Read Full Story at washingtonpost.com »
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Tom Drapeau is the Director of Propeller social news. He enjoys all manner of geekery and internet foolishness. He has seen every episode of Battlestar ...
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TimALoftis1 year, 2 months ago
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Increasingly voters are ignoring the 'Issues' when deciding who to vote for but voting on the person they feel most comfortable sitting and having a beer with. Also many campaigns choose to ignore the issues and just go after their opponent in a unfair attempt to paint or define the opposition before that person can define his or herself. Once something is planted in the small mind of the American voter...even if later it turns out not to be true...it unfortunately has a tendency to stick.
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Negative campaigns work and so often in politics just like in the real world...nice guys finish last.-
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borissnaggle1 year, 2 months ago
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Negative campaigns work because the press report them thouroghly. If the press reported about issues as completely and as repeticiously as they do about what McCain says about Obama and what Obama says about McCain, then voters would be better informed and would be able to cast informed votes.
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pensacolalambert1 year, 2 months ago
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Sara Palin is appealing to GOP because even with libstick a pig is a pig. Anti- gay,
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abortion, science,enviorment, health care. After eight years of GOP leadership, it's clear the direction the GOP has US headed. If you are statisfied or better off now than eight years ago, vote McCain. Palin implied she sold jet on e-bay, she didn't. She implied she was against Bridge to No Where, she wasn't, she took the funds.
She believes the war in Iraq is Gods will and believes creatism should be taught in
public schools. She doesn't believe globial warming is man related and doesn't worry about polluting the enviorment. -
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Sabretooth1 year, 2 months ago
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Alrighty, after carefully watching this video it is now apparent how Bush got in twice, and why McCain may get in this time. There is nothing more dangerous then an uneducated electorate that has no idea of the level of their ignorance.
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By the way, there is nothing an out of control government and elite ruling class fear more then an educated populace. First thing to do in class warfare is to dumb down the opposition, this has been ongoing in the USA for quite some time now. -
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offpavement1 year, 2 months ago
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_(United_S...
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There are numerous other candidates beside Ralph Nader... -
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TheSource1 year, 2 months ago
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We are kidding ourselves if we think that Academia isn't just Flaming Liberals in sheepskin. All one has to do is go into any college and check out the ideas put forth by professors. The
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idea that America has never done anything correctly for the past fifty years is the most popular.
Europe is always right. The Netherlands in particular are their darlings. Yet, these are exactly
the people that drill for oil and others have nuclear plants the provide their citizens with large
percentages of electricity. They critizise American because we did not sign Kioto but are ok
with the Chinese and Indians not signing it. They criticize the oil companies for making 10 percent profits but are ok with all other businesses such as their colleges and universities making many times more than that. Why don't they limit themselves to makin only the same
amount as the inflation rate. We are not allowed to drill just until transition to other fuels. Yet, they are ok with the unintended conequense of the millions of people that will die in Africa alone due to the increase in the price of staples lrice and other basic foods. Those are also issues that the general electorate recognizeare. Not only that but we are contnuosly affected by those issues. Please don't insult us. The electorate knows much more than many pro-fessors think. Perhaps that is the reason people like Reagan win elections.-
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borissnaggle1 year, 2 months ago
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You need to support your contention withsome concrete examples. Have you gone to any college campus and recorded what is being said? Do you have specific examples of contentions that the Netherlands is right?
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Make your arguments believable by supplying specific examples that are on the public record so they can be checked. -
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morsdeus1 year, 2 months ago
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It is always the die hard anti-liberals that label any opposition group as a liberal (as though that were an insult to begin with). You will discredit the experts such as historians, scientists, political scientists, and others because they point out flaws in the conservative status quo with facts and trends while you retort with the empty and scornful regurgitation of the right wing media personalities.
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Would you like to research how much oil drilling and nuclear energy investment is occurring in the Netherlands? Would you like to discuss the fact that India and China did not sign the Kyoto Protocol because America (an influential world leader) did not? Would you be willing to pull up profits of private universities and compare them to the profits of the oil conglomerates. Public Universities do not operate on profit, so they are obviously excluded from your criticism. Can you cite ANY expert (not on the payroll of Big Oil) that thinks drilling will make any difference in gas prices in the next five years? Can you cite an expert that believes drilling will make more than a few cent difference after 5 years? Give facts to back your poor argument.
If you are insulted that the electorate is being called 'stupid' then become more aware yourself. Your argument only reinforces the argument that the electorate is uninformed and is most certainly an insult to the English language. As a word of advice, if you intend to argue that you are smarter than some dumb Ph.D., try using proper grammar and spelling. -
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ardontarzana1 year, 2 months ago
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YOU ARE RIGHT!
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I would like to add something else: The majority of the african american community will vote for Obama and I understand it. The "Bush haters" will vote against McCain and nothing will change their minds, there is no reason in their decision, and logical or not they are voting for Obama; the REAL 'force' behind Obama are the new voters, the college kids, and most of those young enough to be trapped by the trend and peer pressure who believe that Barak Hussein Obama is 'cool' and even has a 'hot' name. It makes me very sad to think that our next president could be elected without any REAL reason and without any REAL merit. Like you say, college profesors are planting the seeds of their liberal agenda in their students and the mainstream media have become the best publicity for the Obama campaign, never daring to show any opposition to it and behaving like paparazzi, (let's remember Obama's trip to Iraq).
Is it possible to change the minds of these young rebels?, I doubt it; what this great country needs is to have ALL of us who love it and cherish our democracy to analize what is going on and go out to vote for the one we think may be the best.qualified.
We are about to elect the most powerful person in the world, not the "American Idol". -
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Dianadale1 year, 2 months ago
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You might want to try to listen to people with an open mind once in a while. I'm sure all your professors didn't say the US was always wrong and Europe was always right. We are a great country, but we have done some terrible things and we can always improve. However, I wouldn't waste a lot of time with you because you are very closed minded. And where did you get the stat. that the oil companies only made a 10% profit. People liked Reagan because he could give a good speech. Remember, he was an actor!
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jordan111 year, 2 months ago
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We are kidding ourselves if we think that Academia isn't just Flaming Liberals in sheepskin. >>>>
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Knowledge opens one's mind, hence 'liberals' will be found in academia. The propaganda of 'liberal academia', used negatively, is old hat. You're behind the times. CONS have since moved on to the media. Journalism, you remember that. It's what helped to educate on issues. CONS have penned journalism as 'liberal' just as they did academia. In response, the media dropped its journalistic ethics of informing from both sides with objectivity. Look what mcbush is doing. They're refusing to let Palin be interviewed unless the media pays her some neocon 'respect', which means no tough questions. And it's working. The media will play soft ball with mcbush and company, and Americans will remain dumb. -
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memestryker1 year, 2 months ago
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The University of Chicago, George Mason University, and Harvard University are definitely not widely leftist. I've seen studies that suggest leftists self-select to a statistically significant level for the teaching field, but they also seem to cluster in fields in particular schools. Philosophy at Berkeley used to be considered pretty leftist.
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Klarissa1 year, 2 months ago
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"College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds
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By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page C01
College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.
By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week.
The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.
The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.
"What's most striking is how few conservatives there are in any field," said Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and a co-author of the study.
"There was no field we studied in which there were more conservatives than liberals or more Republicans than Democrats. It's a very homogenous environment, not just in the places you'd expect to be dominated by liberals.". . .
Rothman sees the findings as evidence of "possible discrimination" against conservatives in hiring and promotion. Even after factoring in levels of achievement, as measured by published work and organization memberships, "the most likely conclusion" is that "being conservative counts against you," he said. "It doesn't surprise me, because I've observed it happening." The study, however, describes this finding as "preliminary."
. . . The researchers say that liberals, men and non-regular churchgoers are more likely to be teaching at top schools, while conservatives, women and more religious faculty are more likely to be relegated to lower-tier colleges and universities.
Top-tier schools, roughly a third of the total, are defined as highly ranked liberal arts colleges and research universities that grant PhDs.
The most liberal faculties are those devoted to the humanities (81 percent) and social sciences (75 percent), according to the study. But liberals outnumbered conservatives even among engineering faculty (51 percent to 19 percent) and business faculty (49 percent to 39 percent).
The most left-leaning departments are English literature, philosophy, political science and religious studies, where at least 80 percent of the faculty say they are liberal and no more than 5 percent call themselves conservative, the study says.
"In general," says Lichter, who also heads the nonprofit Center for Media and Public Affairs, "even broad-minded people gravitate toward other people like themselves. That's why you need diversity, not just of race and gender but also, maybe especially, of ideas and perspective."
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borissnaggle1 year, 2 months ago
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Of course voters ignore issues. They expect to get information from the press. But the press ignores issues. I challenge you to get anything but the most superficial information from popular newspapers, magazines or any major television network.
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Stories like the pregnancy of Palin's daughter get repeated for days on end. Strories about candidate's proposed solutions to the economic crisis may appear briefely once in some sources, but never are repeated, and seldom get anything but the most superficial coverage.
Until we have an informed and mature press corps we cannot avoid being under informed.-
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Engnr1 year, 2 months ago
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The problem is the job is for President, not King. The candidates do not get to make the laws all they can do is approve or veto what comes out of congress. Any candidate who say he is going to do more is lying.
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All you have to do is listen to the two speeches from the conventions and you will know who is the biggest liar.
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Mi1 year, 2 months ago
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If the press is so concerned about voter ignorance then they should start reporting the issues in such a way that people understand them. They may be dumb as you infer but the are not so dumb to not be turned off by the media trying to make up their minds for them. They are perfectly able to make their decisions when properly informed. I think people vote opposite of the press just to get even. They shut their minds down because of the bias.
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borissnaggle1 year, 2 months ago
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I don't see examples of the press trying to make up peoples minds. I see the press concerned about adolescent matters like the sex activities of a candidate's daughter and snippets of inflamatory remarks of a mininster where a candidate happens to go to church.
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The media people don't appear to me to be intelligent enough to make up people's minds for them. I believe that they avoid issues like the economy and healthcare because there are almost none of them who can understand the issues.
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doylespar1 year, 2 months ago
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Any improvment when Obama is electe will be incrementlal because every day we plunge downnto debt and entanglements overseas withIraq, Bush is like a terminal cancer that will eventually bankrupt the vicrtim's family and that is us.
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BUT WE GOTTA TRY IF THERE ARE ENOUGH OF US WHO ARE NOT IN LOVE WITH A R ON OUR FOREHEADS.AND A PHONY BROAD FROM ALASKA. WHO CANT RUN HER FAMILY.-
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borissnaggle1 year, 2 months ago
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Politicians need to get their names in the news. Talk about the debt and you'll get a few seconds coverage or a few lines in the New York Times. Appoint an articulate unknown broad from Alaska and you'll get days of coverage. Announce that the broad's teenage daughter is having a child and you'll get a page in the New York Times.
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Obama doesn't understand the press nearly as well as the McCain people do. -
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kycatfan811 year, 2 months ago
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Why do you think she can't run her family? Because her daughter is pregnant? According to the Guttmacher institute there are 750,000 teenagers out there in the same shape. Oh, and I think you can double that number to include the fathers of these pregnancies. If, as I think, you probably don't have children, then you must think you can control them. If you have children, then you must be keeping them under lock and key. We raise our kids the best we can. We try to give them moral guidance but we can only hope they follow this when they are out on their own. Try to challenge the candidate on issues and principles, not emotional drivel. I don't think there is anything phony about Mrs. Palin, but I do sense much that is phony about you.
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ANNEE1 year, 2 months ago
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Here's the thing, American voters are smart enough know that who is President is not as important to the issues of the day as who is in Congress. The President proposes, the Congress disposes. The President therefore becomes a person who embodies the ideals, the morals, heart of the people. Not surprising that more people are interested in the candidate being a "real person".
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This is why, time after time, people who vote for the candidate who promises to fix THEIR personal problem are continually disappointed and disillusioned. -
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tDDisgusted1 year, 2 months ago
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Talk about idiots. If the experts don’t say what you want let’s discredit them. Cleary the experts say the last 8 years have been a series of lies and take aways from 95% of Americans. So, since I can’t lie about my record, I’ll lie about my war record, yeah, yeah, that’s right, I’m a war hero, not a “maverick”, womanizing, drunk, that learned how to sell out his country in a POW camp and continued to do so the last 26 years. If that’s not enough for you, look into McCain and Charles Keeting and influence peddling during the last mortgage crisis.
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kycatfan811 year, 2 months ago
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Which experts? Obviously not the ones who counted up and found that the House has been controlled by the dems. 236 to 199. Check the facts. Congress? It's a virtual tie unless you count Lieberman as an independent dem. in which case the democrats have a slim majority there. I'm no Mccain supporter, but I'd be a little more careful when calling others "idiots."
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marja11 year, 2 months ago
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As a very concerned and demoralized American working mother I would like to
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get to following answers from Sarah Palin?
How could her International Political Experience be based of the fact that
Russia happens to be on the other side of the Bering Straight at the very
northwest corner of Alaska? What has happened there recently and has she even
been there ever? Either Thompson or Giuliani actually credited her this way.
How could she exploit her down syndrom baby for her political advance, when
she could not or would not even take care of the baby herself after leaving
the hospital? She left the baby just 3 DAYS afterwords to be at her Governer's
office leaving others to care for this very special baby with very special needs.
This baby needed breast-feeding and extra cuddling by her Mom . State
of Alaska Governer's office would certainly understand and give her at least
3-6 months leave? What is more important to Sarah Paley - her family and
children or her job??
What kind of mother has she been to her daughters not having counselled them
properly about the sex education, abstainance and birth control? What kind
model mother is she for those over 400000 pregnant American teenagers, whose
babie's fathers disappear leaving the teen mothers without high school and/or
college degree, unemployed, on welfare and many of them ending up on drugs????
Where does a Governer of Alaska need a luxury governer' s plane any way - to
fly between Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau?? Most of Alaska is covered by
bush planes and there is abundance of them in Alaska.
And last but not least, why where the people of her small town/village afraid of not
voting for her?? Many of them mentioned this?
Sarah Palin, stop looking down of us, the real and concerned American
working mothers and fathers. Most of us are also hockey/soccer/baseball/basketball/tennis/
football MOMS and DADS, too! We just don't use it as credit/merit to further our
professional careers!
American, do NOT vote this woman!
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pderoo11 year, 2 months ago
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I really don't believe that McCain chose her because she was the "smart" choice, I believe he chose her because she was the "emotional" choice. His campaign staff apparently "gets it" that many people tend to vote emotionaly rather than logically. So it was a "smart" move on their part, just not the smartest choice they could have made for a good match for McCain.
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Just look at how his ratings shot up after her speech, but really, what did she say of substance that could cause that??? Nothing! It was a purely emotional response -- a Hockey Mom -- a Pit Bill with Lipstick -- NRA member -- teaches her children Abstinence Only (hey, she's got 4 more kids that might work on) -- Anti-abortion (even tho her boss is Pro-Life with the exception of cases of rape, incest and the mother's health) -- mother of 5 with a special needs child -- knows how to run things cuz she's a Governer (of a state with a huge surplus and only a population of 638,000, albeit a beautiful state) -- can handle a conflict with Russia cuz it's right next to Alaska, etc. But yea, she was their best choice, or so they think! -
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missjanenc1 year, 2 months ago
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What I'd really like is to propose a ban on focus groups, political consultants and other 'surrogates' and eliminate polls altogether. (As we saw in the primaries, voters can be swayed by what occurred in other states.)
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Let the candidates stand on their own two feet without their canned responses and prepping and see what they REALLY think and how they respond to pressure questions from the moderators without those questions being 'approved' ahead of time. To me, that would truly separate the candidates from the automatons and give me an idea of who's the better candidate. -
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rocketw251 year, 2 months ago
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I believe this to be accurate, of most interviews i have seen from the conventions people can never give answers to simple questions about there canidate. Can response from Obama supporter, He's for change. Change of what? uh uh uh . But Mccain is the same old politican. People dont do research they just join in on the bandwagon.
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thehummelr1 year, 2 months ago
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The American voter is stupid. It takes work not to be stupid. Quite honestly, the average voter doesn't care enough about our country to educate himself/herself about how our government operates, let alone what policies are best for the country. It is work to read everything available, sort out the wheat from the chaf, and then apply what is learned to voting. As the prof points out, our kids can't even tell you how long a senator serves or who their senators are; and you want them to know what proposals are best for stmulating our economy. Add to all of this the underlaying current of ignorance-based prejudice and I'll bet I could predict right now that we will end up with four more years of the same thing.
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alstola1 year, 2 months ago
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Does anyone know about the 3 journalists & photog. that were arrested & beatin at the r.n.c in St. Paul while warring their press tags & screaming press, press..or the pre-emptive raids intended to intimidate protests & silence dissent...This nation is advancing rapidly toward facsism if it isnt there already..for those that are interested , google nicole salazar (a producer & member of the press) & see her arrest & what followed..she filmed her own illegal arrest.. see it on youtube...Venceremos
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jwbooth1 year, 2 months ago
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With all the deep rooted opinions that people express, I wonder how many on either side can tell - what is the foundering plank upon which either party is based. In other words what makes a Dem. a Dem. or a Repub. a Repub. No matter if liberal or conservative, left or right, what is the party based on?
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Bkumm1 year, 2 months ago
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I'm curious by what you mean by this question.
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The Democratic Party grew out of the party of Jefferson and Madison. It has, of course, changed since then, but in sum, one could say the three primary principles of the Democratic Party are these:
1. Liberalism of the society, in that each member of the society is responsible for regulating his or her behavior within boundaries established by law. However, no group should have rights that are not granted to all groups.
2. Free market enterprise system with government regulation to ensure fair access, environmental protection, protection of the consumer and defense of workers. This must not be construed to mean that the Democratic Party is for tariffs or protectionism, but rather to ensure that workers are not taken advantage of by employers.
3. A government of, for and by the People that provides the guarantees established for us in the Constitution. A government that helps us:
"form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"
This is far and away the founding principle of the Democratic Party.
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ccheng83461 year, 2 months ago
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The city where you can find more educated person are mostly voted for Democrat. The urban who are mostly farmer and not well educated voted for Republican.
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George Bush who is street smart and not academically smart know what level of intelligent a common americans are. Since G. Bush has the same level as the common americans, that is how G. Bush got elected twice.
My suggest is, for every american who do not pass the exam related to US government, they must replaced an illegal alien and get deported to the illegal immigrant country. -
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WHampton1 year, 2 months ago
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If one can get around the rhetoric from boths sides we would be better off. No one seems to realize the rhetoric is all about class warfare. The Democrats would cease to exist without it. But without it we would just be . . well . . . total Socialists. The Republicans would be defeated and gone, hurray!. With a little more class warfare we would then have Socialist Party against the Communist party. That would be fun because no doubt the Communists would certainly kick out the Socialists. Then we would just have a Communist dictator versus Anarchy and lots of very equal dead people. But who am I to speak I'm just "a typical white person" as Obama stated.
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Bkumm1 year, 2 months ago
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Unbelievable.
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Certainly, there is more than a little of the socialist perspective in the Democratic Party's agenda, but that is a founding principle of both the United States and the Christian religion.
If, as so many argue (wrongly in my opinion) that this is a Christian nation, why would we not follow the principles of the Christian faith, which is, mostly, socialist in nature.
Further, the Founders set down for us a document to show us the way, which tells us that we should try to promote the "general welfare". If that isn't socialist than I don't know what is.
Don't confuse Socialism with not being democratic. There isn't anything wrong with Socialism. Just ask Jesus.
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widollar1 year, 2 months ago
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Most religious voters vote for the candidate their Pastor tells them to. The GOP freako's vote for the party no matter how stupid John McCain and his new racist gal pal VP are. These two pathetic misfits have no real plans on how to clean up the horrible mess created by the corrupt Bush regime, because they cannot admit Bush did anything wrong. She is totally clueless, and poor old man McCain relies on Joe Liberman to do his thinking and correcting his many blunders.
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