Voting doesn't Matter

                 TheUnlearningChannel. "Voting For President - 8 Reasons Why Your Vote Doesn't Matter." YouTube.  
                             YouTube, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.

They always try to tell you how important voting is, but do you really feel like your vote matters?  I don't.  This video goes through eight reasons why voting doesn't matter:

1.  Electoral College
2. Two Party Bulls***
3. Who wants this job?!
4. Priorities
5. Voter Fraud
6. Re-election
7. Extremes
8. SSDD (TheUnlearningChannel).

Call to Glory

Do you want to remove the restrictions on third party candidates participation in presidential debates?  Here's a petition working to eliminate these restrictions.  I know it's time for change in American politics.  It's unfair to deny the citizens a chance to see new candidates.  It's unfair to deny citizens the chance to vote for someone they like.  The Republican and Democratic parties have reached a point where they refuse to compromise with one another.  If we allow third parties to participate in presidential debates, then, by the domino effect, we may see more third parties in congress where compromise can then be made. The compromise that founded this country can once again reign true!

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Carter and Reagan 1980

Obama and Romney 2012

The Independent Voter Network seems to be an excellent website.  The news articles I've found there have been very helpful in my research.  The article Should the Presidential Debates Include Third Parties? by Tyler Taylor brings up the issue of the Commission on Presidential Debates and it suggests that it is unfair to Americans.  Taylor quotes the CPD's mission statement as follows: 
"The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) corporation, sponsored all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000,2004 and 2008."  The article also mentions that the League of Women Voters were in charge of moderating debates before 1987 (when the CPD started) but refused to continue participation because they didn't want to be, "'an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.'"  Why did America decide it was okay for our government to decide whose opinion mattered enough for debate?  Taylor states that the Republican and Democratic parties started the Commission.  I think that this verifies that the CPD was created to bully the third parties out of presidential debates and quite effectively eliminating them from the ballots.  

Bipartisan Policy Center

I recently found the Bipartisan Policy Center's website!  Just in time for my final essay about my solution to the problem of polarization in America!  There are many useful items on this website that I can use to support my to gain more knowledge on the history and future of the issue as a whole.  The link is, http://bipartisanpolicy.org/.  I will deffinarely be using this source often throughout my essay. 

Works Cited

"Bipartisan Policy Center." Bipartisan Policy Center. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://bipartisanpolicy.org/>.

Congress 2013

 

     American Congress holds 435 seats in the House of Representatives (with 5 delegates and 1 resident commisioner) and 100 seats in the Senate.  These men and women are who the states elected to create and edit the laws America will follow.  There are currently 278 Republicans, 252 Democrats, and 2 Independents total in America's Congress.  This is... dumb!  How can America expect to gain anything good from legislature split almost directly down the middle?  These politicians want to stay true to their party, which should mean staying true to their constituents, but the constituents are also split in half.  America is split virtually right down the middle, so no matter which way the law gos there will be one half of America unhappy with the Congressional decision.  If we had more Independents, I would think there would be more compromise because there would be more middle ground.  The Republicans and Democrats won't compromise on their own because they only want what the party wants; not what the country needs.

Works Cited

"Office of the Clerk, United States House of Representatives." Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of 

     Representatives. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

Facebook Politics

     This post I found on, "Upworthy," was excellent!  I've been caught up in my fair share of Facebook political arguments and this is easy to relate to.  I'd probably be the lazy activist or the thoughtful one (depending on who was in the argument).  I also posted this because I believe this is the basic set up of the arguments actual politicians we vote for have.  A group of people fighting about something that they could fix with a spoonful of levelheadedness. 

Mitchell, Chase. Every Terrible Political Argument You've Ever Seen On Facebook In A Nutshell. 
     Digital image. Upworthy. Mansur Gidfar, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.upworthy.com/every-
     terrible-political-argument-youve-ever-seen-on-facebook-in-a-nutshell>.

Promising Polarization

     The article, "Shutdown’s Roots Lie in Deeply Embedded Divisions in America’s Politics," from, The Washington Post, describes how the government shut down is a direct effect of the parties polarizing in their view points.  Balz mentions how eventually the government will  turn back on and our lives will once again be normal, but also states, "...it also could be a new normal, as confrontation remains commonplace and true compromise rare" (Balz 1).  With the Democrats and Republicans speeding further away form the center, America is losing the sense of compromise it was founded on.  The word, "compromise," is made up of com- and -promise.  The meaning of the prefix, "com-" from prefixsuffix.com is, "fully" (English Language Roots 3).  Based on this combination of com- and -promise, I would say that compromise is more important than it's connotation is.  A compromise is a full promise.  Or maybe compromise is full of promise.  But either way you look at it, it's needed.  Our nation as whole should take a moment to remember why the constitution was created. Take a moment and remember all of the compromise that went into making the constitution before it's too late, and all of the Framers hard work crumbles because Americans forgot how much promise the Framers intended America to keep.

HerrFous. Broken Promises. N.d. Photograph. The New Advocate. 07 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://thenewadvocate.com/promises-seths-experience-with-apple/>.

Works Cited

Balz, Dan. "Shutdown's Roots Lie in Deeply Embedded Divisions in America's Politics." Washington Post.
           N.p., 05 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-10-05/politics
          /42743030_1_government-shutdown-federal-government-politics>.

"English Language Roots." Prefix Suffix. N.p., 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.