Inform me please!

Because of how things have gotten these past three years, i tend to stay away from politics, i didnt like the way things were going and i soon lost intrest come time of the election. Let me tell you, im probably one of the least informed around, and i cant participate in political discussions and i cant back up what few beliefs i have. i dont understand whats going on, i only get the gist of it all.

I cant even say i truly support one or the other, i cant say wether i like Bush or Kerry. I only like Kerry because thats what my familiy is for, thats how it began at least, i cant even say whether im democratic or republican, liberal or conservative. I barely know what Democrat and republican mean, and i dont even know what a liberal or conservative is! i just make it out from what i hear! even if i knew, i want to understand it from all angles and perspectives. I want to have a great idea of what each is and which important figure is who and why.

Im barely aware of our problems, if at all, and i think its high time i found out. if i want to educate myself in all areas, politics is certainly one of the big ones. i want to form my own opinion and be able to back it up with firm facts coupled with my beliefs.

Can anyone inform me and tell me whats going on? whats a liberal? whats a democrat? whats a conervative and whats a republican?


Thanks for your help

 

I can't tell whether I'm republican or democrat either, but that's because I'm NEITHER. What's that? You can't have that in the US? You need to be one or the other? I forgot.

Republican = conservative. They don't want to change anything, and they'd rather go back to how it was, mostly. They usually fight for big businesses, screwing over the little guy. Most extreme are war mongers.

Democrat = Liberal. They like change, and usually fight for the little guy. Most extreme are hippies.

PL

 

OK this is stupid. I was going to politly ignore this thread since you can't make an informed decision without following the news but I just can't stomach poop loops wrong headed, liberal logic.

First, let's establish that republicans != conservative and democrats != liberal all the time. For example the republica party supports an amendment to the constitution banning gay marrige, most conservatives do not. I can be a conservative and not a republican or a liberal and not a democrat, these are just general party descriptors. Second, while conservatives originaly wanted to conserve the way things were and liberals really originaly were supportive of individual liberties these labels have lost any such meaning. Conservatives support many new governmental programs such as the ownership society and liberals come down against personal liberties all the time(Bill Clinton signed the legistlation that created "free speech zones" instead of allowing protest anywhere near events). Finaly note that these definitions and subjects are only useful when considering American politics, since liberal and conservative have entirely different meanings in Canada and Britain.

Now, since you don't want to educate yourself on particular issues I'll give you a quick little test to find out if your a conservative or liberal:

Who are you more afraid of:
a) big bussiness
b) big government

Who ****es you off more:
a) fundamentalists
b) environmental/animal activists

Should the US go to war without UN aproval:
a) yes
b) no

Is the pursuit of profit inherrently dirty:
a) no
b) yes

Does affirmative action help minorities:
a) no
b) yes

Which is better:
a) free trade
b) fair trade

Should marrige be defined between one man and one woman:
a) yes
b) no


So all the a answers are typical conservative answers and all the b answers are typical liberal answers. Now that you know generaly which you are I urge you not to vote this year. Part of being a good citizen is being informed, and reading posts on the internet is not the strongest step in that direction. I advise you start reading newspapers, listening to talk radio, watching news programs and reading topical political books to get a more complete picture of what's going on in the world.

 

whaledawG: no reason to urge shorty not to vote this year. He is 14. And no need to jump down his or PLs throat.

Shorty: If you want to be informed on the issues, dont watch TV news. Well, you can, but watch multiple stations (not fox....fox is rediculous). Its tough to be informed now adays because the media is so partisan. I have to read the new york post and the new york daily news to get any kind of idea of whats going on because one is so pro bush you cant see through all the fog. The internet is an excellent sourch of information. There are a lot of great websites out there and a lot of bad ones. Because of the availability of information (freedom of information act is an awesome thing when you combine it with the internet ), people put up blogs and info sites where they have actually documentation and sitations of other reliable news sources to back what theyre saying. If youre willing to take the time to look, you can be very informed.

Im very biased, but I will link some of the sites I visit a lot... obviously bush hating sites, but that doesnt mean that their info is bad. (im sure some of it is "propaganda" as the right wing nutjobs say....but .. most of its true )

http://www.dailykos.com/

http://www.misleader.org/

http://www.motherjones.com/

I dont know any kerry bashing sites because I hear plenty of that on the TV news and in the newspapers. I read those to get some stories on real issues...not whether kerry is a flip flopper and bush had a bad service record. I read those sites to read information about the administrations business connections, and the intelligence they got before 911, and of course outlines of the administrations lies . Good luck on getting informed...theres a LOT goin on right now... be happy it wont be your fault if the bushman gets re elected... youre too young to get blamed

 

So, don't watch fox news bc their partisan. But your blatantly and admitedly partisan sites are full of good information? Riiiiight.

Actualy, I highly recomend fox news. They are biased, but at least it's all out there. The subtle liberal bias of most other news services is much worse in my opinion.

BTW Tika you are the first person I have ever heard accuse the media of being biased toward bush(sans individual outlets and stations). Kerry couldn't ask for a better friend in his corner then the New York Times, which has a very deep impact on news all over America. A good number of papers and local news broadcasts look at the NYT and use its stories to choose what their going to cover that day.

If you want the least biased news, go to yahoo and read it right off the AP wire. Then read the same story in your local paper after they parse it, the liberal bias of most media becomes pretty obvious in that case.

BTW Tika, I think you meant to tell him that it won't be his fault when bushman gets re-elected

 

its to prevent people like Bush from completely destroying our country.

 

The term limit is designed to keep one man from becoming too powerful. Essentialy, before that it was a tradition to have 2 terms. But Roosevelt stayed on for 4 and that scared a large number of people since he never actualy lost, just died. They were afraid that one man could entrench himself in so deep we would never be able to vote him out, so the 22nd amendment formaly limited the president to 2 terms.

It really is one of the best parts of our system, 8 yrs is enough time for any president to accomplish what he needs to do and we should be getting a fresh perspective at least once per decade.

 

What a well thought out and reasoned response

Of course, it was a democrat who forced it to be formalised. The truth is that either party could be a threat if allowed to hold that office for too long.

 

Whaledog: I admitted the sites that I linked to were kerry biased yes. But that doesnt matter when the articles and materials they site are not. When I said not to watch fox, what I meant was dont watch ONLY fox. You cant be informed these days with one information source. Its impossible.

"BTW Tika you are the first person I have ever heard accuse the media of being biased toward bush" - Where are you from that Im the first person that youve heard say this? I mean, some of the news stations are coming around and deciding not deal with all the blatent lies coming out of this administration anymore. But some still spew his BS. ALL of the TV newstations are biased, as are the print news sources. My point is, you have to look all over the place if you want to be informed.

"BTW Tika, I think you meant to tell him that it won't be his fault when bushman gets re-elected "

ahh... No... if is good, considering the fact that Bush looked like the bumbling lying jerk that he is in the debates, and Kerry actually made his stance known on some issues. As well as finally pointing at Bush and outlining SOME of the blatent lies he tells. If he does get re- elected, be ready for a mutiny.

Agreed. It could go either way. But Bush is a quick and easy example since he is our president now and it would be severely detrimental to our country if he gets elected to a second term, let alone a third. ESPECIALLY with all the talk of election rigging.

 

If you want to rant then your heading in the right direction. If you want to convince ppl that your ideas and opinions are correct then I would suggest you put out more facts and less slander. I don't think calling bush names is going to bring anyone to your side, at least not me. I prefer rational arguments to high school theatrics.

Hahaha, it's only partisan democrats who talk of the <i>election rigging</i>. Everyone else accepts the fact that with every independant recount of florida bush won 4 yrs ago. You may argue that it was a flaw in the rules, an asertion I would disagree with, but no serious person can bring up charges of election rigging.

I do apreciate the irony, however, of liberals buzzing about electorial problems and then saying "Hey, did you hear all the negative buzz about elecotorial problems?". It's kind of like killing your parents and at trial begging for mercy because your an orphan.

 

Im not trying to convince anyone here. Im just talking about going in lots of directions to get your information. Then trying to form your opinion on the matter. But when I talk about polotics my hatred for our president spews eagerly from my mind to my fingers to the post. Sorry.

 

Actually, it's 2 consecutive terms. Clinton could run again if he wanted to, but like you said, traditionally it was 2 terms max.

Close this topic please. I just want to say, that ever since Bush got elected, AMERICA SUCKS BIG TIME!! No, not just because of him. Not only is there bashing from both sides, but it's uninformed bashing most of the time. Not only is it uninformed bashing, but most people are too stupid (omg! a personal attack! live with it) to even see that they are being blinded by BOTH sides. This whole election is about Iraq. DO WE LIVE IN IRAQ? NO! I want to know what they are going to do AT HOME. That's why I don't buy either of their Bull(youcanfillintherest). The two party system has slowly been eating away America, and pretty soon nothing will be left.

PL

 

I want you to realise that in one breath you insist that it's 2 consecutive terms and in the next complain how uninformed America is.

 

thanks for all your help, some stations dont inform enough and its difficult to keep up sometimes because by the time I hear about it, its 2 months later ( some news stories dont even say too much about it). ill check out the sites and see what i can find. i should try reading the paper more, i havent thought of it. thanks!

 

My Civics teacher said 2 consecutive terms. I assumed HE was informed. This just goes to show you how horrible the public education system is here.

PL

 

Could I have the name, school, town and preferably email address of your teacher? I'd like to contact him and see if he supplies me with the same faulty info he did you.

Even assuming your assertion that he gave you the wrong facts is true, doesn't it bother you at all that you were so quick to judge everyone else's capacity when yours was so blatently wrong? I mean, you corrected me without even verifying what the constitution said. It's not hard to find, it's only a google search away. And yet when your found out you have no remorse or second thoughts? This honestly gives you no pause at all?

And to top it all off you claim it wasn't your fault that you were incorrect, it was the systems. Thats just intellectualy lazy and dishonest. It took me all of 2 minutes to find out the truth with no resources that you didn't have available to you. I'm no fan of public education, but don't you see how incredulous it is to blame it for your stupidity? Can you really not see how insane that is?

BTW, I really would like your teachers contact info.

 

Oh, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm gonna go commit suicide now and repent for my wrong-doing.

I didn't feel like I NEEDED to check my information, because (you ready for this?) MY TEACHER GAVE IT TO ME. THAT'S WHAT HE'S THERE FOR. Did you always check and double check the information your math teacher gave you? NO, because that's what HE'S THERE FOR and you assume what he's telling you is right.

Besides, if the Leader of the Free World can blame the system, why can't I? (you know, "I was given false information about Iraq... it's not my fault")

The fact of the matter is, teachers are there for a reason. If I were to check all of the information they gave me, I might as well have been homeschooled.

PL

EDIT: {Snipped}

 

Ok, chill out now, discussions are fine, not agreeing with each other is fine, arguements are not, personal attacks ate not!

|Cain|