Thursday, December 17, 2015
2016 Election
Today in class, we watched the Republican debate. Before last year, I knew nearly nothing about politics, but now that I'm 18 and will be able to vote in the next presidential election, I feel that it is my obligation to follow the presidential campaigns and develop a greater sense of politics. I have been intending on watching each debate, but they were all scheduled at inconvenient times and I have not found the time to watch them. Prior to today's class, just about all of what I knew about the election came from the media, which I knew I couldn't completely trust because it is usually biased in some way. I probably will not have much time to watch many of the future debates until AP exams happen, as my schoolwork will significantly decrease at that point, so watching the debate in class today was important to me because it showed me first hand what to expect to see when my schoolwork lessens. I do not have much experience watching politics, but I know a few things about general etiquette, so I was amazed by how some of the republicans acted towards each other. The one candidate that stands out from the rest in the area of offensiveness is Donald Trump. I know that he is an outlier and does not represent the Republican candidates well, but it is amazing how he can tell other candidates that they are stupid and that their ideas will never work. Donald Trump reached an all time low when the crowd started to boo him, and he reacted by telling the crowd that they support terrorism. Also, Trump proposed that the United States should kill the family members of terrorist, which is absurd, and is, as Rand Paul states, against the Geneva Convention. So, what I learned from today's class is that Donald Trump is as bad as the media says, and that the Republican debate can be very funny. Hopefully the Democratic debates end up just as funny the the Republican ones.
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I also feel obligated to educate myself a little more in politics as a future voter. I was entertained but also a little worried about what I saw during the debate we watched in class. It seems to me like there is not a stand out solid candidate.
ReplyDeleteI also feel obligated to educate myself a little more in politics as a future voter. I was entertained but also a little worried about what I saw during the debate we watched in class. It seems to me like there is not a stand out solid candidate.
ReplyDeleteThe Republican candidates are all quite extreme in their views. The amount of disparity between candidates on some issues shows how polarized the party has become recently, with most candidates being able to be described as either Libertarians or Fascists. One candidate, Donald Trump, is not even a real Republican. He has held Democratic views until recently, and I am surprised that nobody has called him out on that. Unfortunately, most of the candidates are more concerned with attacking other politicians than giving their own stances on the issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Dan said. It is very difficult to get an idea on how the candidates stand on the issues when they are so busy attacking each other. I'm sure a good deal of the population uses these debates to decide who they agree with and who they want to vote for and I don't think the debates do a great job to inform the voters. At one point I remember Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz debating for five minutes about how Cruz voted on a particular bill. Rubio accused him of voting one way and Cruz basically conntraticed him. So one was right and the other was straight up lying. Unfortunately the only way to resolve it is to research it yourself and see. Im willing to bet the majority of the populaiton watching the debate do not fact check whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump may be the loudest and most willing to say offensive things, but many of the other candidates hold equally extreme beliefs. Ted Cruz talked about carpet bombing ISIS which would also kill many civilians even though Trump was the only one willing to say it outright. John Kasich talked about punching Russia in the nose which is something equally as inflammatory as much of what Trump says.
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