You’re probably all sick of hearing about the election and having people harass you to vote… but there are a few questions that popped in to my head during this election cycle that I am anxious to ask you!
Data is proud to vote. He always votes for the Gray Party. I think this year they were promising more meals in the day (don’t think it’s going to happen, Data).
When I was talking to my mom on Monday I asked her if she was going to vote. She said she would, especially since people fought so hard for the right for her to do so. I told her I was going to vote, but probably just along my party line. Then I thought about it – she was probably doing the same – but for a different party.
Question #1: Do you hold similar political views to your family members, especially your parents?
You don’t have to tell me what those views are – I just wonder if it is common or not to have different political views than your family. I know I have different political views than mine, and Steven probably does too. Luckily, politics rarely come up with my family, and if they do I just try not to discuss it.
Question #2: Should uninformed people vote?
I voted, but didn’t have much of an idea of what was going on. I don’t watch TV/the news, read the paper, or listen to the radio. I am never caught up on current events. I only know what is going on in the world if I see it on yahoo when I log out of my email, it is mentioned to me in person, or on someone’s blog. YES, it is like I live under a rock. I know. It’s not good.
Question #3: How do you stay caught up on current events? How did you decide who to vote for? Feel free to skip that last question if you want.
Steven found a good website that listed all of the candidates and he did some research for us. He filled out ballots and handed them to me when he picked me up at the train station. We discussed the candidates on the 7 minute drive to our polling place, then I went in and voted.
I could say that maybe next time I will be a more informed voter, but I don’t know if that will be the case. I am just not that interested in politics, which probably makes me a bad, bad American.
I’m pretty sure my parents are split on political views… but my dad isn’t registered to vote (he doesn’t want jury duty). I think my mom and I are more in line with our views… and I think my brother has similar views. He’s the most political in our family.
I don’t really have an opinion about uninformed people voting. Obviously, in a perfect world, everyone who votes would be informed, but it seems impossible to have perfect knowledge about a candidate- they make promises and then don’t keep them or change their minds once in office.
I think I am living under the same rock as you are.. hehe. I don’t keep on top of current events, especially if they involve politics.
but my dad isn’t registered to vote (he doesn’t want jury duty)
I don’t know where your dad lives, Kandi, but at least in Illinois the jury duty list is not created solely from the list of registered voters. It’s created from the database of people who have driver’s licenses or state IDs!
My parents and I are really close on our political ideas, which definitely makes it easy to have discussion about politics and current events. I spend most of my day reading the news for work so it’s hard to *not* know what’s going on, but I’m also a pretty huge news/politics junkie anyway (journalism/political science major haha).
I hold similar beliefs as my parents. I try to stay informed on what is going on but sometimes it is hard because the news is depressing. I did a little research on the candidates and made my decision.
I’m Canadian.
1. The Man and I don’t vote the same way (often), nor do we vote the same way all the time. I occasionally vote the same way as my parents but usually for different reasons.
2. Everyone has a right to vote. I mean how do you set the bar on informed? Slippery slope that could lead to so much tampering.
3. I’m just generally informed. I live in Ottawa, Canada’s capital kind of hard to get away from the issues even if I wanted to. I think in general, it’s tremendously important to stay informed about stuff.
I am opposite of my parents. I thought my husband and I voted the same until one time we talked about it and realized that we almost always cancel each other out. Sometimes when I don’t have time to go I take comfort in knowing that as long as he doesn’t vote either it ends up the same as if we both had. (I am a terrible American too because of that and also because I don’t care much about politics in general. I feel like most of the time no one truly represents me or even comes close enough for me to feel super strongly about anyone.)
My mom, step-dad, and I vote the same way. I think my dad votes opposite of me, though. I know my brother and I vote the same, too, but I’m not sure about my sister. Jason and I also vote the same.
But do we vote as informed voters? I do listen to NPR in the mornings while I’m getting ready and I listen to some of my coworkers talk about issues, but I don’t research every single thing the candidates say they believe. Mostly because I know that as soon as they get into office it will be all about deal-making and persuasion and not their initial ideals and promises. So, really, in the end I’m not sure that it matters who you vote for.
I have more or less the same political views as my parents, BUT I am embarrassingly uninformed. This year, I (somehow) missed the election entirely. Because I’m still a resident of one state, but living almost full-time in another, I feel weird voting absentee for my home state. That’s a pretty lame excuse though. I kind of believe that everyone should vote…
…though I am so uninformed, maybe I shouldn’t!
i am very different from my parents, but neither of us is very vocal about our beliefs, so it tends to work out. t is probably the same on me on many issues, but he claims to be “unpolitical”, so i just leave it at that. i don’t vote when i’m uninformed. it’s maybe not a good thing..like, “why don’t you go out and get informed?” but, honestly, i don’t feel right putting my opinion out there if i don’t have time to know the facts.
I’d say that my parents and I probably agree on 90% of political issues… but on the 10%, wow do we disagree!!
I wouldn’t say uninformed people shouldn’t vote… it’s their constitutional right, after all. But why would someone WANT to vote if they don’t care enough to know what they’re voting FOR? It really bothers me when people go out and vote blindly because they were “told” to vote for a particular candidate. If you vote for someone I think it awful, that’s fine — you’re entitled to your opinion. If it’s your opinion, you know?? Not someone else’s.
<3 <3
My parents and I are pretty opposite. I am similar to my husband, but we do differ on some things. I tend to not talk politicts much – it’s such a personal thing and can be so very devisive (plus, I’ve never managed to change anyone’s mind, so I guess I’d rather not argue about it).
I try to be an informed voter, but many times, it’s just in the more major parts of the election (for instance, our ballot had a big bunch of judges on it – I always say that next go round I’m going to try to be informed about the judges up, but I never seem to get to that). But I still vote for the parts I’m unifomed about, usually along my party lines.
For what it’s worth, I really hate our 2 party system. I wish we as a nation could have managed a democracy with a true selection of people from which to choose. So often, I have 2 choices and can stand neither, but I end up having to vote for the lesser of 2 evils rather than a for candidate I can really support. I hate that.
Interesting questions and I agree with your mom about why she votes:
1-My mom and I hold similar views. My dad is hard to read and never tells people who he voted for,
2-I think people tend to know who they are going to vote for and why. They are influenced by the ads, the endorsements and the candidates so even if you are not on top of the issue, I think that most uninformed people are aware of who they like.
3-I tend to be aware of the candidates and there platform and basically trust my gut. I tend to favor one party over the other and tend to vote a straight ticket but, I am willing to switch sides if the person appeals to me.
#1: Our family (that votes) is split 2-2. We don’t really talk politics because we all agree you have the right to vote for who you choose.
#2: Hard to say who is an educated voter these days. With so many candidates on both sides doing so much negative campaigning they are having to say less and less where they actually stand on issues. I think everyone has the right to vote though. They are a member of society.
#3: I tend to go out to the non-partisn sites to figure out where they stand on issues I care about. I don’t vote straight ticket, so it is important for me to look at every person running.
I think you mean “uninformed,” but your post says “uniformed.” Uniformed people should definitely be allowed to vote 🙂
Sometimes unfortunately, everyone has the right to vote, be they up on politics or not. Agree or disagree, that’s the American system and I wouldn’t change it. Ideally I’d love to see every voter have some knowledge – especially knowledge of the candidates that goes beyond those terrible mud-slinging attack ads – but I agree with Erin: once the candidates take office, it’s politics as usual regardless of what they claim to believe in.
I guess I do have the same political beliefs as my parents, as my parents aren’t strongly devoted to either party and change their minds with each candidate/election cycle.
#1–I’m fairly in line with my parents but not always. We don’t talk politics too often for a variety of reasons…one reason being that we’re not generally politically passionate!
#2–I think anyone has the right to vote but honestly this is the first “major” election I’ve missed since I turned 18 b/c I did not feel informed enough to make an educated choice. I don’t vote on a party line–I very much vote issues/candidates–and since I didn’t feel like I knew enough (or had time enough to do “adequate” research) to make an informed choice, I stayed silent.
However, I’m not a politcs junkie or anything like that…I probably know just enough to be dangerous on a few isssues so I often feel apathetic or like a “bad American” for not caring more or being more informed.
My political views are pretty much in line with my father’s views. My husband is a staunch conservative so we are polar opposites there. It makes for interesting conversation 🙂
Most of my family believes that same that I do. But mostly we just plain believe in VOTING. And if I don’t know the candidates well, I vote for my primary party affiliation. What I can’t stand are the people who said, “I’m voting for Noem because she’s a hunter and women who hunt are hawt!” Um. No. But then again, I live in South Dakota.
Also, I didn’t get a sticker and it’s not fair that Data got one.
I have radically different political views from my family. As for uninformed people voting? I regretfully say yes. They may have one or two issues that they’ve been told are important to them and, if they choose to trust that information, they should be able to vote that. The problem is that their ignorance often causes problems OUTSIDE of those areas.
I stay up on current events by following a number of internet news sources which speak from a variety of points of view. As for who I vote for? This year was the first time I wrote-in a candidate because the vile and disgusting attack ads by the two candidates didn’t deserve my vote. I don’t reward ugliness and lies. Otherwise, I vote what I feel will best benefit myself, my family and friends, and our society as a whole.
1. My parents shaped my political views and so we do share the same voting line.
2. I think informed voter is left to interpretation. Especially where I live. Unfortunately we can’t take quizzes as we enter the voting place.
3. I don’t always vote straight ticket and I don’t like that that’s the only way you can vote in the primary in IL. 🙁
i’m sure i vote the same as my parents.. in fact, i think my mom would come storm my house and beat me if i didn’t (she feels VERY strongly that one party is “right”) 🙂 i don’t vote that way out of fear of beatings, i must point out.. i genuinely agree with that party line!
My views are very different from my family’s, but we don’t discuss politics either. I’m much like you in that I don’t really follow all of it. I generally get my news from people I talk to and blogs I subscribe to…probably not the best way, but I find watching the news on TV requires me to sit still too long (not likely to happen) and just brings me down (yuck, who wants that!).
Yeah, my political views are different from everyone in my immediate family (not the one I married into but the one I was born into). And my Mom and Dad are both extremely opinionated, which wouldn’t bother me but my Mom is terribly uninformed and will call me repeating stuff she’s heard on commercials about different candidates she assumes I will vote for.
This will probably give away which way I lean, but during the last presidential election, I got a voice-mail from my Mom that started off “this is your mother – who didn’t abort you”. Yeah, my family keeps it classy. But thank goodness Chris’s family – although probably also different in their political views – is open for discussion and LOVES to do so without attacking each other. It’s kind of awesome :).
My parents never really shared their political views with us, so I don’t really know what their views are. Quite honestly, I don’t pay nearly as much attention to politics as I should. I live in a bit of a bubble since I don’t watch much TV and don’t look at newspaper websites as much as I should…I feel terrible admitting that I didn’t really know an election was going on until people started reminded others to vote. Therefore…I didn’t vote since I think a misinformed vote is worse than no vote at all. When I do vote….I usually vote a straight ticket. Probably bad…
Wow – great question. I loved reading these reponses and generally agree with some of the thoughts.
Although my husband and I agree on views (I hesistate to say “party” because I don’t really affiliate myself with either of the two after watching the chaos of the last few years – neither really represents me) I am the sole standout in my family – and learned the hard way that politics cannot be discussed at family gatherings (or on Facebook!). And as someone mentioned, politics are personal and emotional, and you will likely never change someones mind. I will also say this – I used to vote solely along party lines, but then I started really looking at what is was I voting for, and realized that there were cadidates that in no way represented me – so I took the time these last few elections to really look at each candidate, and actually voted a slightly mixed ticket this year. I like to be able to articulate who I voted for and why, at least to myself.
I used to be afraid of politics, feeling it was all just too frustrating and overwhelming, but I have found that it feels much better to me to stay informed. I like being able to understand the issues beyond all the yelling and name-calling and anger (which seems to dominate all conversation these days), and (unlike my mother) not have to rely on other’s opinions, tv ads or pundits to tell me how to think. I spend a tremendous amount of time (although this is not always a good thing) reading news during the day, listening to talk radio and watching some tv news. Last night my mother told me, “It’s just too much work to look closer” but my thought is: when we are handing these people as much power as they have over our lives and future and the futures of our kids, taking a little extra time to figure out what they stand for seems worth it.
I liked your comment, Megan, especially the last sentenece. I hadn’t read yours before I posted but we have some similar opinions.
I share the same political views as everyone in my family – parents, husband, brother & SIL. I used to follow politics pretty closely but I got kind of burned out after the 2008 election and with the current nasty political tone. But I did have a politician that I strongly supported in this campaign and donated money to.
I never understand the people who say all politicians are the same or that it doesn’t matter if they vote or not. The people who are in office have a lot of impact and it totally matters.
Q1: I definitely have some different opinions from my mom. We’re both in the same party but I’m not the type to vote for something just because they’re in my party. I vote for people, not parties. My mom usually votes for the people in her party, much more so than I do.
Q2: I really don’t think they should. Just as it’s our right to vote, it’s also our right NOT to vote. I don’t think anyone should vote, just to vote.
Q3: TWITTER! Twitter totally helps me stay up-to-date and closer to election season, I start paying more close attention to news & what the people stand for.
Fun questions!
Q#1: Totally opposite. Almost all of my family is conservative, whereas I am very liberal.
Q#2: Every person, informed or not, should vote. While the results may be skewered in some places and races, I would never want to deny or think that someone shouldn’t exercise their right to vote, even though I hope for more informed people to head to the polls.
Q#3: I find a read unbiased reports about the candidate or issue and look at the social impact and advantage to voting for said person or measure. Although in this day and age, that’s getting harder to do.