Our nation’s media is being saturated with campaign ads as each state moves closer to primary time, and things could not look uglier.
Every politician has earned our distrust anymore, so it’s a given that a lot of people are beginning to be skeptical about advertisements, or at least taking the information with a grain of salt.
Facts are being skewed, dirt is being dredged up and it is approaching the no-holds-barred time for the front-runners.
Sadly, our nation is facing quite a dilemma this time around.
For many of the people who hated the idea of Barack Obama being president, it is a time of screaming change.
The change that we were supposed to believe in is much more subtle than anticipated, and things have only improved minutely.
The fact that Obama has received over $21 million from Wall Street for this go-round does little to soothe the woes of how things are operating.
Scary as it is, the alternative choices being screamed for are in the same questionable boat.
Mitt Romney’s own adviser said that it was possible for him to switch all of his positions if he were to win the primary, something that everyone should find slightly disconcerting.
Newt Gingrich has been proven wrong on multiple occasions; one of the most revealing to me is that he wrote a book on domestic drilling lowering oil prices, yet over the last few decades, the opposite is what is being displayed on gas station signs.
Rick Santorum is an embodiment of things that many people shouldn’t believe if they’re running for public office, and that’s all I really want to say about him.
Ron Paul, now looking like a lost cause, honestly strikes the most resonance with my belief systems, yet has had racist tendencies in the past, making him not as much of a collective positive to me.
All I can say is that we had better be glad Sarah Palin or another Bush didn’t run this year, or we may have been in even more of a world of hurt.
Pertaining to campus, we have had loads of activists promoting every interest under the sun recently, including our own Student Government Association.
Obviously much less renowned and prestigious than a national or even Congressional election, it is still important to us as students because the members of these bodies are who we choose to represent us and our desires.
While I have not talked with members of both parties extensively to understand their goals, I understand that one goal being presented is to have a wet campus.
For those who don’t know, this is the idea of supporting alcohol use on campus by those whom are of legal age.
To what extent the party is attempting to make the campus wet, I do not know.
However, for anyone who is either insanely for or against this idea, keep in mind that there is never going to be a legal version of “Animal House” on campus, nor is that the goal.
Don’t expect to be able to crack a beer in the quad or hear “SHOTS!” in every dorm room, or to even be able to in places containing underage students.
While this is only one of the issues at stake here, it is important to look at the big picture when the time comes to vote, and to take exactly what it is you want to see to heart with your ballot.
While nowhere near as volatile a stage as debating the foreign policy of one of the world’s superpowers, it is still something that we are a piece of.
Be it a change in the ways Slippery Rock addresses its obvious alcohol consumption or something like the quality of entertainment provided to us, there is no reason not to go out and have your voice heard.
That being said, take this advice to the polls this next national election, and for the love of our country, make sure you know whatever candidate it is you support before you hit their button.
