» Patrick Pierce
–ppierce3@my.apsu.edu
Politics is one of the three subjects you don’t bring up in conversations. While the other two toxic subjects are money and religion, politics ignites arguments, hurts feelings and/or puts people to sleep.
During the height of political campaign season, many people are fed up with hearing, seeing or talking about the dreaded subject of politics.
Kyle Davis, junior communications major, agrees. Davis said, “It’s better to not even talk about politics and keep it to yourself. Just vote for who you want to vote for and leave it at that. It’s not worth the hassle that could lead to an argument.”
The term “politics” used to mean something positive and productive: to run the government for the people, by the people.
Now, politics has become somewhat of a negative, dirty and overly complicated art. It has become about who can find the dirtiest secrets and bash the other candidate with the most negative TV ads.
Politics can be viewed as organized corruption — who can screw up the government worse in four years and blame it all on the next elected official?
Tyler Schlem, junior geoscience major, dislikes politics and campaigns because, “It seems as though our government is currently dysfunctional and outdated.”
“Many bills sit in the House and Senate for thirty cycles of voting and similar things like that, so not much gets accomplished at the end,” said Schlem.
Politics, campaigns and elections have become a popularity contest, similar to that of a high school election. Elections seem to mostly come down to which candidate is better known or has more money to advertise, rather than the candidate that will benefit the people most and get things accomplished for the betterment of society.
Campaigns basically turn into a bashing party, full of controversial negative ads on TV and the internet to make the other political party look bad. Bringing back the past of a candidate that happened many years ago just to make them look unfit to run this country shouldn’t be the way to get elected, but unfortunately that’s how it seems to work.
James Murtha, junior physics major, said the reason he doesn’t like politics is because, “there’s not enough differences between the two parties nowadays.”
Murtha continues, “The fact that there are only two main people to choose from, so if you want your vote to matter in some way, it just seems very artificial and not in the benefit of our country.”
I believe that’s the view of many citizens in the United States. The constant bashing about how one candidate did this or why this candidate did that is what causes citizens to lose the true reason on why they are voting.
If both political parties took the time and money used to bash each other to actually discuss important issues of our country, more things would be accomplished.
It’s not just the presidential elections; it is also the election of senators and representatives. Politicians collect a hefty paycheck to allow bills to sit in the House and Senate for thirty cycles, while the average citizen suffers from poor political decisions.
The national debt is well over 16 trillion dollars. Rather than trying to bring that national debt down, politicians and campaigns choose to work against each other due to unnecessary differences between each party.
There are possible solutions that could help others, and me, have faith in politics. We should go back to the original method of electing president and vice president.
I believe that the winner of the presidential election should be elected the president of the United States, just how it works today. However, I believe the runner up should be elected as the vice president of the United States.
This could help both parties work together. Imagine that — both parties working together under the same term for the betterment of the United States.
This would negate the ignorance put into political campaigns. Less of “this is what makes my opponent look worse than me” and more of “this is what I want to do for our country while in office.”
If campaigns, elections and politics became more functional, voters may become more interested and engaged in the political process.
Maybe, just maybe, my views toward politics would change. Until then, I will continue to hate politics, campaigns and elections.
Kyle Davis said, “It’s better to not even talk about politics and keep it to yourself. Just vote for who you want to vote for and leave it at that. It’s not worth the hassle that could lead to an argument.”
Tyler Schlem said, “It seems as though our government is currently dysfunctional and outdated.”
James Murtha said, “There’s not enough differences between the two parties nowadays.”
