Politics and Media

During the extra credit, three professors spoke.  The first, Robert Sahr, professor at Oregon State University.  Sahr had a very direct, understandable approach about the Unites States political system, first he says that most Americans believe that the US has the best political system, but they have a lot to find out.  Personally, I do not believe that our political system is the best, but I feel like I do not have much of an impact.  People believe that our political system is the best because the government tries to make us believe that it is the best and that we should not go anywhere because anywhere but here will be worse.  I enjoyed looking at the map of the US and seeing where and how different the popular and electoral votes were for different presidents.  In my argumentative writing class we were talking about the US government and if it was plausible to have electoral votes or if we could argue that they were not the best way to elect presidents.  In that class we looked at electoral votes and how the US states have changed on voting for democrat or republic candidates. It was interesting to see how the United States has changed from the 1970's to now.  


Overall I enjoyed listening to the three speakers talk. I'm not big on politics, but the one thing that stood out to me was what Rob said, he said that Obama won the election because of his use of media. Particularly social media. When Obama was running for president I was 15-16. I didn't really have any care in the world about our president yet.  So I didn't pay much attention. And 3 or 4 years later, now that I have a Facebook and a blog and I go on the Internet every day, I see how important and useful it would be for a president to use the Internet as a way to seek out to the general public.

Another aspect that caught my eye was how presidents campaign. They campaign in states that will give them the most electoral votes. It seems silly really, for the public to even vote anymore. With the presence of electoral votes it makes the public think that our individual votes really don't count for anything.

As for me personally. I am not a registered voter anywhere. And I don't plan on voting. Before I ever turned 18 I would hear adults complain about current presidents and current laws and what not. And then I would ask them if they voted. And a lot of them would say no. I believe that if an individual decides not to vote. Then they should not complain about things because in the long run, your vote along with another could have been a deciding factor. At least that is what I believe. So if I choose not to vote. I will try my hardest not to whine about all the promises I know each president will break. How many candidates have Promised to lower the national debt? All of them, right? And how many of them have accomplished this? None of them. We can't believe all the bullshit that they tell us. Its their job to tell us what we want to hear and we are all too naive to shake our heads and know that their job is to suck us in, just like any other job in the world, we do what we have to, to make money.  So this is what they do, they lie to us and make millions of promises.