In class on Wednesday we discussed the basic principles
behind the concept of liberalism. More so we laid out the path the United
States has taken from the classical liberalism view to a modern socialist view,
which often associated with the Democratic Party, and a conservatism view of
liberalism, which is often associated with the Republican Party. Yet, while
President Obama and Senator Romney have both declared which party they are
running with, as a class we could not come to a consensus on where to place
either on our line of liberalism.
Each candidate has attributes from the respective liberalism that we associate
with their party, but neither is truly in the middle. Could this be error on
our part as a class for how we interpret their policy or could it mean more?
Just as the view of liberalism has shifted over the years in the past, could
the election and next four years establish new view liberalism?
Furthermore on a side note, as a nation we not
only vote a president into office but also a vice president. With the vice presidential
debate tonight each candidate must establish their own strengths without
infringing on their respective running mate.I think it will be interesting if Biden or Ryan can reestablish Obama’s or Romney’s policy in a positive manner that would bring them closer to middle of the categories we discussed in class. CNN suggests that the vice presidential
debate may not be a huge deciding factor, but could shift the momentum of the
election.
I believe that as our country's political system has progressed, we have seen greater deviation from that of each candidate being completely "conservative" or "liberal" depending on their designated parties. Also, our nation has seen greater effect of the media onto the people as they sway opinions. The candidates have become accustomed to saying what they believe the people want to hear as a means to obtain a greater amount of votes whether their statements technically agree with their designated parties or not. I agree with the idea that the Vice Presidents may not cause a direct effect on the election, but as we saw in class, there was much confusion that arose as we discussed the positions of Romney and Obama and the Vice Presidential debate could have caused a bit of clarification on several topics.
ReplyDeleteThe vice-presidential debate definitely sparked opinions. One of the key points of the debate was the relentless aggressiveness of Biden. Biden definitely came out trying to make up for the lackluster performance of Obama the previous week. Moments into the debate, Biden went on the attack. Senior CNN Political Analyst David Gergen thinks that “Joe Biden did his boss a lot of help” while others – senior Romney campaign adviser Russ Schriefer – think that “the sighing, the eye-rolling, the grinning” caused him to lose his “good points”. It was agreed that Ryan won the debate on style and had a more presidential manner.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/politics/debate-five-things-learned/index.html