Government Class Upon College Students example essay topic

To Vote or Not to Vote, Is That Really a Question? Are students properly informed in political areas? The question abounds while adults worry about weather students will vote for political views or weather they just agree with Bruce Springsteen. Astin says that "A democracy works only to the extent that the voter is well informed" (Astin 97).

Astin believes that the only way to have a properly functioning democracy is to have informed voters. This is the question of the day, why people vote, weather its for actual political views or for the sole purpose of agreeing with someone else. For the most part students that want to know about political views are fully aware of the goings on in their government, where apathetic students do not know anything and have no concern with knowing anything. One of Astin's ideas is to force a government class upon college students, making them learn and then allowing them to vote as informed citizens. I have a problem with this, I do not want to have another class to take in college since I already have to wade through the standard crap like history. The idea is sound, but the placement is wrong since in most Texas high schools students have a government class.

The only problem is that many students take these classes with out learning much. My junior year in high school I took AP Government, a single semester course. My school offered both AP and regular government, I elected to go the extra mile and take in a college course, horrible idea. While in this class I soon realized that it was a futile attempt, and that I should just give up, so the afternoon after the first class I tried to transfer to the easier class, and that didn't happen. In the end I got a thirty-seven in the class, needless to say I got the opportunity to attempt the class again senior year.

Not being one to make the same mistake twice I opted for the standard government class, taught by the football coach. Needless to say this class was slightly less difficult and with the knowledge that I had gained from the little attention I had paid in AP I was able to swing through the class with an A. This is simply to show the extreme difference between the classes and to show people just how simple the standard government classes are. I'm not suggesting that people make the government classes as hard as my AP class, even though I could care less now since I've already graduated high school, I think that the standards for government should be raised a notch or two, maybe high enough to where students actually have to read, or at least open a book at some point in the semester. Another problem with today's elections is the candidates. While I'm, not saying that this ever was the case, neither of the candidates' people look at In this election are just great men. Both of the men have made mistakes, and have poor records, weather its Kerry's war protests or Bush's poor reasons to go to war.

The problem is that in today's media the voter doesn't hear everything they need to know about the issues, because as Astin knows all too well "Negative campaigning rules" (Astin 96). In today's elections its not a battle of who has the political opinions that match the voters', but who has lead a less malignant lifestyle. Presidential elections should be about the issues, while Bush's war in Iraq seems to be all a load of crap that he initiated for cash, and he supposedly has so many monetary ties with the Bin Laden family, yes I've seen Fahrenheit 9/11 and Michael Moore has created an atrocity that rotted every cell within my brain. I believe the war was a good thing, if nothing else to keep terrorists off of American soil. The terrorists that threaten America weren't just going to take a break and wait for us to respond, we needed to take action, and Bush took action.

While people say he had improper motives I think he had a good one, and that was keep them from hitting us, without our counterattack those terrorists would have been over here doing everything they could to destroy us, and Bush has succeeded in keeping them off of our land and running away from our troops. The two candidates also differ on some major moral issues, foremost being abortion, which I don't understand any moral citizen being able to vote for, yet, since people see Michael Moore just smear Bush's reputation into the ground they would rather vote for Kerry, shoot me. Now a lot of people don't think abortion is wrong, that was just an example, and there are plenty more of them, but the main fact is that people need to worry about the political issues not just Bush's dui, or Kerry's love for catsup. Personally I believe in a person's right to defend themselves in their own home, and therefore I want guns, and lots of 'em, I also want living babies, therefore I am a strict republican, the only way to go. Political views run rampant in today's society, however some people believe that someone who keeps quiet can be ill informed, or even a bad citizen.

Loeb has his stance on the culture of silence that he speaks of, that students remain silent because they have no political views, where Astin has his thoughts about citizens without political views being bad citizens, putting the two together makes quiet people look like Hitler, which is a mild exaggeration, but you can get the idea. The truth is that they vary in a lot of ways. Loeb says that some silent students started off as outgoing political students, but for a lack of searching they fail to find groups of politically active students. Someone who is silent for too long can in no way retain his or her political views or concerns, right? The sarcasm drips from the page, as I attempt to imagine that must be an activist in order to maintain steadfast views. Astin tends to tell us more about the citizenship problem, not really worrying about the silence thing.

The issue is weather people are politically active or not, not weather they force their opinions on others a lot or not. While Astin seems to call people without opinions bad citizens, he does not seem to lump the quiet people in the same category as the indifferent. Personally I have my own political views, and they are not changing, I do not want to hear the rankings of anyone against me. Therefore I try to go with a do unto others way of doing things, I don't want to hear what democrats have to say, so I leave them alone and allow them to be wrong, if for nothing else so that one day they may leave me alone and keep their banter to themselves. So since I have views and I am quiet, other than these papers which I cannot really avoid, Loeb is wrong. Astin's view on being a bad citizen may be a little closer to the truth though.

What kind of good citizen abstains from helping their government, because that's what everyone who votes thinks they are doing, and ideally they are. Who wouldn't want to have a helping hand in cleaning up the government? That is why good citizens vote, because it is not only their right, it is their duty. So while being quiet isn't necessarily a bad thing, not voting can be, which brings us to the end. In conclusion, what makes a good citizen?

Does a good citizen need to speak up and tell the masses of his or her views? Does a good citizen need to dig up crap on politicians in order to sway the opinions of the weak minded? No, neither of these things makes a good citizen. Good citizens are well informed and they vote, I shall use again my favorite quote from Astin: "A democracy works only to the extent that the voter is well informed" (97). To truly be a good citizen you need to be aware of the reason you vote, and it cannot be some cop out reason like voting for someone because your friends did. The slovenly apathetic voters that only vote because people make it such a big deal to vote on the TV could technically wreck America.

Granted this will probably never happen, but it should totally suck to be part of the reason why America has fallen just because you decided to vote without knowing the facts. And after all its not that hard to learn, anyone can turn on the TV and get some information, even though "this particular medium is not doing an acceptable job" something is better than nothing (97). Perhaps some of these people could even go the extra mile and look up some facts in the newspaper, I mean my class was deemed the most apathetic class ever to graduate my high school, we had no prank, skit, and only about two people wrote on their little hats at the graduation, although some moron had the idea to write some apathy phrase we were entirely too uncaring to put forth that much effort, and I took the time to find what I needed to know to make up my decision of my own free will. The point that I am trying to make is that people need to know what they want in our government and vote for that, they need to leave all of the silly stuff behind and vote on the issues, and then our democracy will be at its finest point.

Bibliography

Astin, Alexander. "The Cause of Citizenship". Experiencing Ideas. South Lake, TX: Fountainhead P, 2004.95-103.