Youth Politics

Is everyone entitled to vote? The simple answer is, no. The more complicated and more correct answer is, it depends. In one of my earlier posts entitled Make Your Own Decisions, Vote!, I discuss how I believe it is not only your right but your responsibility to vote. Now however, I want to talk about who should actually vote and who I don’t ever want to see at voting booths.

In the United States, persons under the age of 18 are not allowed to vote officials into public office. The question is why. Why are we putting an age limit here? Clearly, it’s because we don’t feel that those under the age of 18 understand the political system enough to have a valid opinion. I certainly wouldn’t want a four year old determining the fate of this country? I’m sure at least most of you would agree with that. Similarly, a baby of not even a year old couldn’t possible decide who to vote for, much less even know what it means to do anything except eat, sleep, and cry. I could make a similar argument for those who just became teenagers: nothing but eating, sleeping, and crying, am I right?

So if our age limit has to do with who we believe could even make a rational choice, then is it fair that those who still can’t make rational decisions past the age of 18 are still allowed to vote? Does that even make sense? Do I want a complete idiot who is oblivious to all things politics have a stab at changing the direction of this country? What if someone lapses into a coma at the age of ten and wakes up in their thirties? Do they still have every right to vote?

Criminals are denied the right to vote. This makes sense, as society has already determined that to commit a crime, you already must be thinking irrationally. Let’s not even bring up the fact that you’d probably hate the government for locking you up anyway. It’s further proof that the people we do not want to have voting are the ones who are incapable of thinking rationally.

However, being under the age of 18 and committing crimes are not the only criteria for not being capable of rational thinking. I’m sure you’ve met some people (or a lot of people!) who you deem ill-qualified to actually vote, either because they would be ignorant of who to vote for or because what they think goes beyond stupidity. And no, I’m not going to label liberal thinking nor conservative thinking as stupid, although there are certain aspects of both that astound me with their respective stupidities…

Anyway, I don’t think EVERYONE should vote. People who have no idea what’s going on… I don’t think should vote. But that’s just me. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense for them to. Generally the people who don’t know what’s going on wouldn’t really care to vote regardless. There’s also the people who do care, but they’re just plain wrong. I’d love NOT to see them at the voting tables, but alas you can’t just command stupid people not to vote. Or can you….

I’m a bit distracted right now with personal issues, so I haven’t been posting as regularly as I usually do.

We’re on the home stretch of the election season with voting only six days away. I want to commend all of those in college or otherwise out of state who turned in their absentee ballots to vote in this historic election. I have a feeling the youth turnout will be much bigger this time around, and I am pleased that I know so many of my friends who actually took the time to receive their absentee ballot, fill it out, and turn it in.

For those youths and others who are not out of state and can vote on November 4th, make sure to do so. Remember, not voting is the equivalent of accepting the elected president, whomever it may be. Sure everyone does have to accept the candidate who wins, but those who don’t vote I don’t believe get the right to say, “no I didn’t want that guy”, because by not voting, you automatically accept that others know what’s best for you.

I for one, will make sure to make my own decisions and not have anyone else tell me who should be the next president. If you feel the same way, definitely make it out to the polls. I look forward to seeing a much higher youth voter count this election season, so make sure to get out there and vote!

You know, being 20 years old means I’m not exactly caring too much about health care. I’m not too young to start worrying about my health, it’s just not one of the top things on my mind at this point.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking though, and I realize that may I DO need to start paying a little more attention to health care policy. While I myself may not be concerned about it, what about when my parents get older? Who’s gonna pay for the bill? Would I possibly need to help my parents obtain health care?

Youths need to start worrying about these kinds of things. Our parents aren’t getting any younger. Sooner or later they are going to need more treatment, unless your parents are absolutely amazing health-wise (and I know that can’t be true for everyone’s parents. If I one day do need to take care of my parents and obtain health care, it had damned well better be affordable. I mean, let’s face it, Social Security isn’t doing too hot right now. How many families can safely say that Social Security would fix all monetary problems after retirement? Probably not too many, especially with 401k’s being threatened currently.

So, who’s going to have the better health care plan? Of the two parties that actually stand a chance of winning the presidential election, both promise affordable health care. There is huge debate as to which one will actually work, although to me they both sound roughly the same with different execution. I do not see what all the fuss about who’s plan would work best is for, because I don’t think candidates have to disagree on every single issue. Sometimes both sides can come to the same conclusion you know…

There will be a greater population of older people in the upcoming years, and the youth generation needs to prepare for it. It may not seem like a big deal now, but that’s because we’re still rather young and are not forward-looking enough. Whatever the health care solution is of today, it had better be one that I can afford, because if I end up in a situation where I have to take care of my parents, I want to be able to pay for it.

You may read the original post here:

Pacer521 is a 13 year old blogger from Los Angeles California who actively contributes to Youth Politics. You may check out his other writings at the link cited directly below.

By Pacer521 from Culture Decoded
Sarah Palin’s stage presence is not just (frankly) full of it, but rather a powerful force that transcends her image right before your eyes.

And as the second chapter in the saga of the Republican convention comes to a close, all anyone can talk about was what everyone originally thought was a mire introduction to the grand closing — John McCain’s speech.

But it was instead the main figure of the entire convention, and the talking point on both the web and television, creating many side stories as well. Why? Palin’s speech was powerful. So powerful, in fact, that not only did it spark very heated initial reactions, but later provided so much aftershock that it seemed apparent to me to write about it.

Putting my strong political opinions aside, I must give Palin credit — that no matter how completely false and utter lies she used, it was hard (even for me) to shake of her speaking passion, mostly credited to how zoned in she was. And because of this, I know for a fact that many gullible Americans have fallen “victim” to her transcending speech, ignoring her factual mistakes and instead focusing intently on her valiant, confident speaking power.

And right now, no matter how many people (including me) stress the comparison between the top of each party’s ticket, because of her star power, Palin has gained the public centerpiece of not only the Republican party, but the image of politics in general. And, strangely, this is not because of the higher possibility of her being commander and chief in the near future, because — as my sister would say — John McCain is like a “dinosaur”, but rather because of her instant celebrity status and overall image that is so different.

By different, I don’t mean because of her gender, but rather her breed. She is a new breed of politician, far away from your raging and shouting, sweaty middle aged point maker, but rather someone who we have not seen yet — a setting of mind that many teachers know to loathe. She uses her stature and newly-found political ego to her advantage, acting like she knows for a fact that each and every single thing she says is true, in the most convincing way I have ever seen this done among politicians.

Simply put, she’s a giant black whole for your brain, in the form of a person who would most likely be the farthest away from that status — a small town governor of the second-least populated state in the US.

So — as a word of caution, not a political recommendation –please vote on what you believe, not what you have been convinced to know.

Today I want to introduce to you all a young 13 year old freelance writer and blogger from Los Angeles, California. His blog, Culture Decoded, is popping up all over the web. It has been featured twice in the Boston Globe, many blogs and online magazines. As this site is dedicated to youth politics, that means all youths have a say in the political process, and I want to show that here on this blog. Please note that he is a guest writer, as I did not write this entry. You can check out his website at culturedecoded.wordpress.com and if you want to read the original post (complete with video links and pics) you can read it here.

I highly encourage other youths to speak up as well, and if you have any writings you’d like to share, please drop me an email at crowtche@juniorpolitics.com and I’ll be glad to feature you. So without further ado…

By pacer521 from Culture Decoded
Presidential races have had a history of being dirty and under the rug, and political cheap shots were never hard to find. But this year, in an already breakthrough election, candidates have thrown out more ads recently than ever before. Political standoffs between two parties or campaigns have usually resulted (or been the result) of an attack ad, complicating already very political situations by letting the general public have an unusually high say on the outcome. Thus, TV spots have turned into political weapons — with endings both beneficent and disastrous to their authors.

Most recently, these political ads taken huge strides in the form of attacks back and forth from the two remaining candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. Although Obama has just recently started sending out “attack” ads, mostly as responses to McCain’s harsh accusations. The first real sign of this was McCain’s “Celebrity” ad, which was the result of a non lethal (in the sense of attacks) but heated standoff between the two senators.

The ad, sent out by a seemingly fearless McCain squad, compared Obama to the star-struck Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, and was responded to in a surprising fashion — by Hilton herself. The response was brilliantly played out to both send a message to McCain, and — as another topic — improve Hilton’s public status. It worked, flooding out McCain’s original ad and setting the stage for Obama’s more political response, which delivered a more serious but at the same time up-beat message.

This was really the start of McCain’s continuous but mild public downpour, in which his previous political gaffes have come back to haunt him, including his Iraq-Pakistan border nightmare as well as his foreign policy mistake in Jordan, pictured, which occurred during a press conference.Obama, though, has never capitalized on these public weaknesses. Taking a position many politicians in his would have quickly decided against, the senator will only fight once attacked. This way, not only has he kept a very clean slate, he has had time to asses the attacks aimed at him, quickly differ what he can say, and then release a public spot with many more directions and points to make than McCain. This, however, has never been referred to as “weak.” Obama’s team has carefully picked apart attacks (some of this is public) and assessed where they can attack and how they can cover up their softer political spots.

A great example of this was Obama’s second major attack ad towards McCain, named “Fix the Economy“. The ad was placed a few days after the “celebrity” fiasco, and is applauded by myself as well as many political experts for its seemingly perfect timing.

The spot aired during the dubbed “aftermath” of the war-like celebrity dispute, where the public was waiting for more moves from the two campaigns. Obama immediately recognized the situation and sent out what I like to call his “smoke grenade.” Geared towards a topic not mentioned around that time due to the previous Iraq-centered debates, Obama took footage of McCain claiming the American economy was in good shape and threw it against clips of American’s disagreeing with him intently. The ad was politically and factually sound down to the finest details, even including the states the Americans lived in, which were battleground swing-states for Obama and McCain (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky etc.) that are currently up for grounds in a political perspective.

I call the ad a “smoke grenade” because it both did tremendous damage and put a cloud of smoke in-between the conservatives and the general public. The points made in the ad sent the McCain party wheeling for a response, and the eerie gap of time made an effective bad aftertaste towards the republicans publicly. What I mean by this is since political attacks were plentiful up to that point for weeks, the world had prepared itself for a McCain attack. But in a sense, it never came. So who can we credit this to? In my opinion, it has really been the work of Obama’s campaign working together, headed by the smart PR decisions of Jim Messina, the Chief of Staff.

So as McCain keeps pumping out attack ads (here is the newest and the response), Obama will keep bouncing them back in the same way he always does — sifting through the ad and hitting hard on the facts. And that’s why Obama is not only winning in the PR department as well as the television side — he’s dominating.