I was thinking about how much I value the candidate I support. I thought about how if I got the chance to tell people to vote for a certain candidate running I would and would also send bumper stickers, stickers, pins, literature, and a T-shirt to the new supporter immediately.
The show that Bill Maher recently did where he had a segment called “Caucus Me!” got me thinking, “What if I did this to supporters of other candidates?”
I sought out officers of all the major Facebook groups for Hillary, Barack, and John.
This is what Hillary supporters had to say. I’ll post the conversations with other young political minds unedited and then give comments after each of them. Hope you learn something about the youth of America. If anything, you will learn, we care but just may need some direction in order to care about what really matters in America.
KEVIN
I would like to know why I should vote for Hillary.
DAVID
3:43pm Jan 17th
Hillary has made a career out of advocating for women, children and families. And yes, along the way she has ruffled a lot of feathers. She has been called a communist, a calculating bitch, and worse. Polarization and calculation have become bad words. They are not. FDR, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, even Thomas Jefferson were very polarizing and calculating individuals. They, like Hillary accomplished much for this country.
Hillary has drastically increased the adoption rate in this country, she has created an office within the Department of Justice dedicated to investigating violence against women, she was largely responsible for the original SCHIP legislation which now covers almost 7,000,000 children, and she has long represented America abroad and done us proud. She has visited over 80 countries and hosted numerous international conferences at home. She stood up for women's rights in Beijing and founded Vital Voices an organization that has helped to implement the Good Friday Peace Accords as well as give a voice to previously voiceless women in Taliban Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
To use the buzzword change for a moment, Hillary has long been a voice for change. I believe there is value in looking at what a candidate has accomplished and comparing that to what they promise. Hillary promised Universal Health Care, she promises a better life for low-income families, and children in this country, and she promises an improved America, one that has better relations with the world around it.
Hillary has already done all these things with gusto and will continue to do them if elected.
KEVIN
3:59pm Jan 17th
So you are voting Hillary because she supports women's rights and "universal health care" and because she has polarized people yet been extremely successful?
Why are YOU voting for her? Do women's rights and "universal health care" top your list and that's why she's the one for 2008?
Kevin Gosztola goes to Columbia College in Chicago where he is studying film. He hopes to become a documentary filmmaker. He is currently working as a production assistant on a documentary called "Seriously Green" which traces the development of the Green Party throughout the 2008 election. He has a passion for journalism and writes articles or press releases in his spare time. Kevin Gosztola is also a student activist who believes in questioning the way America's systems work(its electoral system, its military-industrial complex, its foreign policy of American exceptionalism, its media which has become the Fourth Branch of government,etc.)
His ambitions have him currently organizing and raising money for a Chicago Conference for Media Reform in April or May of 2009. It will be organized by college students to promote youth involvement in media reform and justice. Those interested in attending or helping with the organization of the program should contact him.
No sadness or empathy about Waco, Serbian war, war in Iraq and Afghanistan. No rage towards murder of innocents. No passion really.
Kevin, I do not want to sound patronising though but many young adults here seem to be 'undeveloped' in the area of good, solid human emotions. They are indeed 'poor spirits'. I am not insisting all of them are but there is surely a tendency. Otherwise they would understand how clisheed they sounded.
This is from a grumpy man:)
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3603 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 8:57:52 AM
Part of that is a mission to try to uncover the why for voting for either of the candidates who are called "leading candidates" or "frontrunners" now. Why are young people drawn to any of these candidates?
What worries me is these are people who will be the future leaders of America. This is the next generation of politicians and policymakers in America. These people who are volunteers and campaign organizers working on chapters of the campaigns will decide what America does twenty or thirty years from now.
I cannot allow them to be so impassionate, discompassionate, uneducated, and misled. I also cannot allow them to have zero imagination for what could be changed here in America. All of their visions for change are so stunted by reality, a reality that each of their candidates (in this case Hillary) could change or shape because as president they could be that powerful or inspirational.
by
Kevin Gosztola (235 articles, 127 quicklinks, 72 diaries, 907 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 9:15:10 AM
No arts- no development. The role of arts in the humans development is enormous- arts develop personality. How many of them had seen the Goya's ' Horrors of war'? How many had seen ballet? How many had discused great artists like Renoir or Monet? How many read ' The confessions of Nat Turner' Ok, how many of them read ' Common Sense' on their own?
Without this, without the cultural foundation you get a Zombie.
You have your hands full, Kevin, I have to say. I have a son and he is in Peace Corps and I see how very good basically young people suffer because they just... have not ever been introduced to humanity through arts.
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3603 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 9:25:29 AM
Great reading and comments. I'd like to add that I have always equated the Arts with not just personality, but with human dignity. Expression allows people to build and voice their self-worth.
The young are like young of past genreations. They too are duped like adults. 59 million got Bush elected, only a fraction were the young. The building of social capital in our young is lacking. I believe this stems from technology(which decreases social interaction), lack of parental guidance, and education vs. indoctrination.
If schools don't have your children reading great literature like "common sense", "the rights of man," the age of reason," "peoples history of the united states" then it's the job of parents to see they do. however, it pleases me to read more and more highschools are using Howard zinn's "peoples history of the united states" as their history texts.
by
william eldridge (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 12:38:48 PM
In this Red State I went to school in (Indiana), we used good ol' McGraw-Hill textbooks.
Corporatized learning to make your mind go numb.
And if that wasn't enough to make you dumb in the brain, teacher wouldn't talk about history but instead ask us to fill in worksheets by copying and pasting the words or phrases that needed to be filled in onto a piece of paper.
We called it "busy work." And it does nothing for the mind. You don't learn---you memorize. And you don't critically think---you end up hating thinking.
"Busy work" didn't beat me. But it sure has beaten others.
by
Kevin Gosztola (235 articles, 127 quicklinks, 72 diaries, 907 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 1:50:56 PM
I was amazed by the low level of the ' cutural awareness' of the teachers here in the area of liberal arts. English teachers did not know other books by Jack London but Call of the Wild. Paintings, the whole are of those were never discussed. Ballet- oh, boy. Opera- not a chance. The so- called diversity classes teaching about other people were a joke. I always laugh when they mention Dostoevsky as a most popular Russian writer here: he is one of the most tough writers to read even in Russian, not to mention English. Hey, how about ' Moby Dick', had anyone ever read this one in original. I recently discovered a magnificent work by Charles Upham about Salem Witches trials and I ran like crazy to the High School and hollered that that book was to be studied by everyone. Not a chance.
Of course, arts develop a sense of dignity, sure. Where the Hell is this sense when our current Pres does not know even English language?Maybe we all wait for Harry Potter to solve our problems?
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3603 comments)
on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 2:05:28 PM
Actually, Kevin, her supporters sound pretty savvy to me. Your comments did nothing to diminish their points. And as for being antagonistic, you were. That's the whole point of your exercise as you stated in the beginning. Though not in so many words.
You do seem to be one of those haters. It's a pity.
by
fou (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 98 comments)
on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 10:16:08 AM
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