I would not be true to myself if I didn't take some time to talk about politics. In this case I would like to touch on the current presidential primaries. I am not here to be a mouthpiece for the left or the right. As far as I am concerned, the terms have little meaning as the ideals they are associated with are ever shifting and often miss categorized to begin with.
I had planned on writing about a completely different topic this evening but then I started thinking about the election when I was shown one of those silly “take a quiz” time killing websites. This website in particular is designed to match you to your ideal candidate for presidet based on how you answer a series of self-ranked questions. Whether or not the results of this test are entirely accurate or without bias as a result of the test model is unknown to me but for the sake of argument I am going to take it on faith that it gets pretty darn close.
 | |
| Mike Gravel |
 | |
| Tommy Thomson |
I think the shock largely comes from the fact that these guys are (or were in Thomson's case since he dropped out) nearly dead last in each of their races when looking at the polls and according to this site, all things being equal, they should be ahead by at least some margin.
The horror I feel creeping into my mind when I look at these two leading the pack in the compatibility test stems from the reality that these two individuals are far more polarized toward the left and the right than many of their fellow candidates. If these two really do match up the best for a combined 27% of those taking the test, then I fear for the future of our country because, while discourse is the key to growth and understanding (often through compromise), vastly divergent ideologies can potentially lead to uncompromising rifts in society as was illustrated by our own Civil War. Given the current socio-economic state of our country, I do not think a second civil war is on the horizon but I would not be surprised if we see increasing division in our country based on ideological lines.
My Questions
If we are becoming so bi-polar as a nation, how are we to find common ground in order to maintain a bond through our national identity as Americans? Also, with such divergent beliefs on both sides, how are we as a society going to determine the best course of action to the benefit of all and if one side should somehow prove to be more correct is it wrong to impose the uncompromised correct path upon society?
I am also curious why you think the candidates that are seemingly the most compatible with people's beliefs running in last place? I have a few ideas about this myself but I want to hear what you think.
2 comments:
Well as we discussed before, one reason is brand-name recognition (ex. Clinton).
I think another reason explaining "scraping the bottom to find the top" is that people are probably voting strategically. I mean in theory it would be great if I voted for Mike Gravel and Mike Gravel won...but in practice, I will probably vote for the candidate most likely to beat Clinton (Obama), and/or the candidate most likely to beat the Republican candidate.
But what do I know. I was a business major ;)
I think the candidates who matched people's issue profiles, wound up doing so because only folks who are really radically tuned in to politics and the issues would bother to take this quiz. That may explain the extreme left and right wing candidates "winning" in this little experiment. In reality, busy Americans (and lazy ones too) will vote for the more mainstream and hopefully middle ground candidates. Oh,and why are there so many Hillary haters out there? I'd personally like to see Clinton win with Obama as VP (in training for President after Hillary is finished). Signed: Yo Mama
Post a Comment