Republican Caucus in Maine

Romney 52%

McCain 21%

Paul 19%

Huckabee 6%

Popularity: 68% [?]

We’re gearing up for another presidential campaign, and we have some serious domestic issues on our hands. Large parts of New Orleans still look like a war zone two years after Hurricane Katrina, the Administration is dragging its collective feet on what if anything to do about global warming, the country’s infrastructure is crumbling, our children are being poisoned by lead-containing toys manufactured on the cheap in China, people around the country are getting sick from tainted food produced in an environment of voluntary regulation and quality control, six years after No Child Left Behind our children still lag in math and science knowledge compared to kids in countries like Latvia and Hungary, every other week we hear about yet another scientific report being rewritten or suppressed by political hacks at NASA or NIH, and the real estate market is in a state of imminent collapse.

In other words, there are plenty of urgent and weighty topics for the candidates to address – topics which affect the daily lives of ordinary Americans. But are we hearing the candidates talking passionately about education, health care, and rebuilding roads and bridges? We are not. Instead, we’re hearing the same relentless drum beat of scaremongering and tough-guy posturing that we heard last time. It didn’t lead us anywhere good then, and there’s no reason to believe that things will be different this time around.

In interviews and debates, the candidates are concentrating on issues calculated to appeal to people’s emotions, especially to their fears. The War on Terror. The horrors of gay marriage. Illegal immigration. All these issues focus on groups outside the American mainstream (Islamofacists, the gay community, brown-skinned foreigners who don’t speak English) and define their members as the amorphous and sinister “them,” as opposed to the good all-American “us” who, so we’re told, are under attack by “them.” The underlying message is that it’s a big scary world out there and there are bad guys who are out to get us, so we must trust Uncle (or Auntie) Candidate to keep us safe. This is no time, apparently, to worry about unimportant matters like health care access and educational standards because our very existence is at stake.

They’re falling over themselves to out-do each other on how tough they’d be on Osama bin Laden if they caught him, while not mentioning that he’s presently sheltering in a country (Pakistan) whose President is a friend of the US government. They’re parroting the slogan that “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here,” as if Middle Eastern terrorists are incapable of finding their way to the United States as long as there are US troops in Iraq. They’re debating constitutional amendments to outlaw gay marriage, as though the prospect of gay people getting married poses a greater threat to the livelihood of ordinary Americans than tainted food, polluted water, and the prospect of foreclosure. They’re foaming at the mouth about illegal immigrants while corporations shift jobs overseas and slash health care and pension benefits. They’re making fine speeches about freedom and accountability while letting the Administration get away with wiretapping, eavesdropping, and supporting repressive regimes which happen to be friendly. And if the American people raise their voices to object to this cynical manipulation, they invite the accusation of being unpatriotic in this time of war.

The candidates are insulting the intelligence of the American people by treating them like scared children. They seem to believe that if they play on people’s fears and prejudices, ordinary Americans won’t notice that the things which actually do affect their lives are falling apart. It worked last time, and we’ve had four years of steadily declining standards as a result. This time, we shouldn’t let them get away with it.

Popularity: 82% [?]

Voters are the central core to any election.

Without voters no democracy could take place, and there would in turn be no election. At some time during every presidential campaign the topic of voter turnout becomes important, this election will be no different. Every candidate, no matter what party they are a member of, will at some point work to encourage more people to vote. Generally the candidates not only work to encourage registered voters to actually vote, but they often encourage the youngest voting generation to register and vote for the first time. When someone votes for the first time they are legally allowed to it makes it much more likely that they will continue to vote for the rest of their lives. This is an important aspect of any election due to vast amount of votes to be won from this area. A candidate can win votes from this by encouraging people to vote, the candidate not only encourages them to vote but also helps them with registering as well as other things. All of this makes the candidate look better and raises the chance of him or her receiving that person’s vote.

Year after year the voter turnout in America is a very low percentage of those who are actually eligible to vote. The most recent vote turnout data shows that just under 50% of the people within the voting age actually voted in the 2000 election. This low percentage is actually an improvement over the 1996 election albeit a small improvement. This improvement is encouraging to everyone, but political parties and candidates still have lots of work ahead of them to win the vote of new voters through campaigns such as “Rock the Vote” and “Get Out the Vote”. Both of these projects are designed to encourage younger generations to register and vote, as well as encourage older citizens to vote in upcoming elections. Commonly people choose not to vote because they think their vote “isn’t important” little do they know that their vote is extremely important to the American democratic process. Often presidential candidates will directly say “your vote is important to me” in reality that candidate is correct, each vote is of extreme importance. Each individual vote might not have any direct impact on the outcome of the election, but a large group of non-voting citizens can have a dramatic effect on an election when they start voting. Overall the American system of democracy is based on the voter, and without them the system will fall apart.

Popularity: 25% [?]