General Discussion

As election season nears I know I will soon be besieged by all the get out the vote stuff that will be thrown around by MTV and others. They want to get out the youth vote, and most commonly they will drive them towards the liberal. Now im not saying that I am liberal or conservative, it is the mindset and the knowledge of the courted voters that I am questioning. As a youth during the last election I remember all of my young peers saying proudly "I;m voting for Kerry". I would reply "why"; and I would most always get an "uhhhhhh....". And this is the problem I see with a wide range of the youth these days, all they know about the election is what Mtv or some other un-reputable source tells them. They have no clue about the issues or what the candidates on either side stand for. I don't think this problem is confined to youth only but I can see a problem with millions of media overfed young people  going to the polls and voting for the most widely distributed candidate and having no clue what they are actually voting for.

Originally posted by damond5031

As election season nears I know I will soon be besieged by all the get out the vote stuff that will be thrown around by MTV and others. They want to get out the youth vote, and most commonly they will drive them towards the liberal. Now im not saying that I am liberal or conservative, it is the mindset and the knowledge of the courted voters that I am questioning. As a youth during the last election I remember all of my young peers saying proudly "I;m voting for Kerry". I would reply "why"; and I would most always get an "uhhhhhh....". And this is the problem I see with a wide range of the youth these days, all they know about the election is what Mtv or some other un-reputable source tells them. They have no clue about the issues or what the candidates on either side stand for. I don't think this problem is confined to youth only but I can see a problem with millions of media overfed young people  going to the polls and voting for the most widely distributed candidate and having no clue what they are actually voting for.

Il agree with you,but on the same note adults do the same thing so i dont see it exactly fair to just point them out, just because they seem to be the more obvious choice.

Anyway il be able to vote this time around (woot) and in past elections honestly Kerry and Bush, i would of voted for neither, Bush and Al , i would of went Al if anything we would be driving better cars and not in iraq.

I think this falls into the teachings of what they have learned during there learning years, What got me into polotics was my 6th grade teacher, he was very adamint into getting the class into current day issues and polotics and such and making us make decision and i have to say i thank him for it cause i honeslty wouldnt even care about polotics or issues of that sorts without that influence, polotics isnt something you just kinda work your way into from my experiance atleast its something that has to be pushed on you till you go "ok wtf is this, i got a problem with this so il speak my voice"

For younger voters i see liberals as being the media outlook for them, most of us youngins are more for new ideas then with sticking with the old , for a few reasons, we recently have been fed information about past administrations and base our decisions on such things. ACtually im going to stop myself there, let me rephrase that, I DO THESE THINGS, i cant generlize everyone cause i know not many do this. Anyway i use the recent knowledge that i have retained to help weigh my decision  know what these past things have done and such, combinding that with what i know is going on. I would also state i am in way a democrate , im a libral.

anyway before i ramble into a bunch of more things , point is, dont generlize "us" into 1 catagory, just because some dont doesnt mean all of us do, god i never listen to MTV, i usualy listen to news channels (usualy channel 10 but sometimes fox so im on both sides with things) for polotical things or rather dont listen to their reprots and just listen to the speaches.

If anything to vote you should have to take a short quiz so you know what each candidate stands for, and if ya dont know, then you dont vote major parties.

yes. this election will be over the top.

a three ring circus.

i am a bit worried.

must disenfranchise...un-rock the vote, if you will.

Lol well I doubt that the people who engulf there lives in MTV and reality shows actually vote.

Just as many people are blindly voting for McCain. Ask people in tiny mountain towns or rural areas who they're voting for and why.

Chances are, you'll get  as many incoherent answers involving Rev. Wright, that "Obama is Muslim", people eluding to the fact that they won't vote for a black man, or the classic line: " he'll tax us to death".

It's the same thing on both sides of the spectrum..

Originally posted by jackwhite

Lol well I doubt that the people who engulf there lives in MTV and reality shows actually vote.

as you can see in the post above mine, the cat is more the focus then the quote

I think it was a mistake to lower the voting age to 18. A big mistake.

The percentage of clueless, ignorant, and immature voters greatly increases as their age decreases. The whole reason why the drinking age is 21 is for these very same reasons.

One argument for 18 as the minimum voting age is that you can be drafted at 18. Well, instead of lowering the voting age, they should've raised the draft age.

Do I think that there aren't any people below the age of 21 who have clue about how politics/government really works? No. I know there are some, but not very many. It takes a while before you really start to get a grip on what is going on and how things work -- some people never do get it.

But politicians like the youth vote for the same reason that the military likes recruiting at teens: they are far more gullible, ignorant, and easily manipulated than any other group. Plus, if you can get your claws in early, many of them will never question their choices in the future: once you get them, you're likely to be able to keep them.

And the final reason I'll bring up is that outlets like MTV try to pretend that people can make a "real change". They encourage you to be part of the system and to believe that how you vote really matters. Otherwise, people might come to look at the whole process as hopelessly flawed and in need of replacement. But, most of the time, how you vote doesn't mean squat because the differences between parties when it comes to important policies is virtually non-existant, despite their efforts to get you to believe otherwise. So, outlets like MTV want to draw you into the system so that you can lull yourself into believing you have real power, when in reality you almost never actually have any.

I wouldn't be opposed to some kind of test for people before they can vote.

I'm sorry if this sounds crude and offends some people, but there are some very impressionable dumb asses out there.  They vote more for a personality or a party member before they actually consider what this country is supposed to stand for and be.