1. The way your parents vote
Your parents raise you a certain way, and it’s very easy to begin regurgitating the things that you’ve heard them say while listening to talk radio or watching the news, but you should question your thinking before mindlessly parroting the beliefs of your parents. Do you actually, genuinely believe in a candidate? Do you actually, genuinely have certain values? Or have you just been recycling your parents’ politics?
2. Pop culture
While pop culture can put politics into a more entertaining, cutesy context and make it more interesting, pop culture has an undeniable left wing bias, and tends to rely on cheap, overused rhetoric with some “sassy new aged” twist, using a popular “quirky” (probably attractive) celebrity as a mouthpiece to propagate their doctrine.
3. The way your friends vote
Republican, democrat, or third party, there’s an 87% chance your friends have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to politics.
4. Your race
I’m black. I know I’m black. I love being black. Being black does not mean that you have to vote blue.
There’s nothing wrong with a racial identity, but I don’t think that it has a place in the voting booth. Personally, I don’t believe in “Black America” or “White America” or “Gay America” or “Straight America,” but one America with many Americans, that should be voting for candidates that they believe will do the best for the United States of America, not just the Americans that look or behave the way they do.
5. Your sex
The GOP “War On Women” is an absolute fallacy. Religious fundamentalism aside, the vast majority of Republicans aren’t in favor of interfering in people’s private lives; they also aren’t in favor of being forced to subsidize lifestyle choices that they may or may not agree with.
Having a vagina doesn’t mean you have to vote for people that want to pay for how you decide to use it.
6. Mainstream media
I’m a Republican, and I barely, if ever watch Fox News, because I know I’m just being told what (they think) I want to hear, which isn’t always necessarily the truth. Watching Fox News is like talking to a hot guy that pays for everything and agrees with you on everything, but kind of because he’s trying to get in your pants. Same for liberals and MSNBC. Mainstream news has a way of oversimplifying extremely complex issues, and doing so in a way to promote a certain agenda. It’s fine as a secondary source or just passing time, but mainstream media outlets are unabashedly biased and when it comes to their coverage of elections, care not about a candidate’s platform or accomplishments, but the letter in parentheses at the end of their name.
7. Social media
Social media is extremely gimmicky, and has a bad habit of spreading misinformation. Before the facts of a story have even been confirmed, it’s a trending topic; hashtag and all, fueled by bird brained celebrities that don’t know Joe Biden from Joe Budden tweeting about #hope and #change.
8. The political party of a candidate
I know this sounds crazy, but just because a candidate is on your side of the line doesn’t mean he’s the right person for the job or that he’s entitled to your vote. While you may not agree with a nominee on every issue, a leader’s ability to recite your party’s mantras does not make them capable or competent. My political science professor, who is a die hard conservative, actually voted for Obama in the 2012 election because he thought that Mitt Romney was a terrible governor.
identity politicsmainstream mediamedia biaspartisanshipsocial mediavoting
what do you think?