The pool of Republicans seeking the presidential nomination is large, as any glimpse at recent news reports will tell you, but what bothers me is when people say they won’t even consider those candidates because of the “R” next to their names. Someone told me this, and in return I asked what each candidate stood for and what the issues were. They gave me a blank stare. In our own state, last week, someone mentioned they did not agree with Gov. Paul LePage, so I asked them what policies they opposed and they honestly couldn’t tell me about any legislation he had proposed.
Today if you want to learn something, all you have to do is turn on the television, read the paper, or search for it online. For the first time in human history, we have tons of data at our fingertips thanks to the Internet. I don’t know many people who keep up with the bills our representatives are submitting, but I think we need to be closely watching what they are doing, to make sure they are properly representing us. We should’ve acted when the legislature spent considerable time debating which desserts to recognize earlier this year. Remember, we are paying them with our tax dollars. I’ll be honest, I’d rather the state spend that money to reform education instead of debate blueberry pies vs. whoopie pies.
Repre-sentatives are suppose to represent us, so I expect them to vote along the same lines as we would if we were sitting in their seats. This is why I think we need to be active with our representatives; we should be monitoring them and giving them our input when possible. All contact information is on maine.gov, so it’s not that hard to reach them. We should be making our opinions heard, that way we are enabling them to act as we would if we were in Augusta. If we are involved and our representatives are not representing us, then we should not re-elect them.
I have a hard time believing people actually look at what a politician stands for when they go into the voting booth. I remember talking to high school seniors before the last election, they didn’t have any idea what the issues were, or for what the candidates stand. All they cared about was the “R” or “D” next to their names.
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you are a Republican at 20 you’re heartless but, if you’re a Democrat at 40 you’re irresponsible.” I think we follow party lines too much.
Ronald Reagan, for example, was a Democrat then a Republican, but still held the attributes of both parties. Look at our congresswomen, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins ”“ they often cross the aisle, and I think we should all be able to as well. We need to vote for the people who are going to best represent us, not the ones who belong to the same party as us.
Today we need to work harder than ever to keep up with our politicians. Right now there is a lot of political uncertainty, so we need to be paying more attention to what politicians stand for and their personal beliefs, and we need to disregard the parties to which they belong. If we can make educated decisions then maybe we can elect politicians who can make proper decisions to govern our society.
— Timothy Morris is a student at Thornton Academy who is active with Thornton Academy television station.
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