The 2012 Election

                In this day and age the young Americans are said to not be as involved or don’t care about our nation’s government, I do not agree with this. I am part of this young generation that everyone constantly says is no good and frankly it upsets me. Before everyone starts to stereotype they need to step back and look at the situation from every angle. I think as this next generation, when we are called upon we will stand up and take care of our responsibilities. We realize that it us up to us to vote and get the right candidate into office because every election affects our futures directly.

                The United States is a democracy and in order to uphold that democracy the people as a whole need to step up to serve and teach others the importance of their role. Everyone needs to vote to situate the best candidate in the oval office. President in a very important role but we also need to elect the right personnel in the state and local positions as well. In order to run a strong government we need strong state and local governments.

                To help in this election my group and I worked together to help a Democratic candidate running for the Iowa Senate, Brian Schoenjahn. We really didn’t get to help him directly in his campaign but we publicized his candidacy in our school for our “Meet the Candidates Night”. Even though I am not a Democrat this project helped me see the importance of volunteer help in elections.

Blog 5

10/1 - Of the 8 principles of the Constitution; which do you believe to be most influential in shaping society? What role have these ideas had on domestic and foreign policies? 

                I believe that popular sovereignty is the most influential principle in shaping society.  Popular sovereignty is a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people. So the government is created and changed by the people of the United States. So if we change our own government that shapes our society, correct? We control how we want everything to be done, so most of the things we change are in our best interest. We very rarely do things out of our best interest.

Popular sovereignty then plays a major role in United States’ domestic policy because domestic policy is directly related to the people. If one candidate has a stronger domestic policy than the other then we will most like vote in favor of the one with the stronger domestic policy. A very large example of a domestic policy is healthcare. The stand of a candidate on healthcare will sway the way people vote for them. In today’s situation Democrats are in favor of Obama’s plan but the Republicans do not. The Republicans greatly disagree with Obama’s plan and are using is low points to throw Romney into a win. In the end, one domestic policy may be the deciding factor in this election. I truthfully agree with the Republicans because Obama’s healthcare does not seem to be the answer to our desperate situation.

Now whether popular sovereignty plays a role in foreign policy I am sort of on the fence about. We pick and choose our own government, which controls foreign policy; but we don’t actually control foreign policy ourselves. So I guess you could say that popular sovereignty does play a role in foreign policy but in a roundabout way. Seeing as we are part of a war at the moment that would be a great example of foreign policy. In my opinion, whether Romney wins this election may rest on the fact that he wants to further the war. The United States has had plenty of war and we all think we should be rid of any such thing. Obama’s foreign policy on the war states that he was all troops out by 2014, at least he has a plan. So foreign policy will change by who we vote for but it will also change by the way the elected candidate chooses to handle the situation.