I'm having a hard time understanding why in today's society, not only is the economy failing, but the citizens of the United States of America are failing themselves. We let stereotypes and race and money control our thoughts and opinions, as wrong as they may be. People choose to pick the more appealing scenerios for themselves instead of choosing for a more positive choice for a change in the crisis.
President-elect Barack Obama's religious background played a huge role in the 2008 Presidential Election. News coverage followed the information of his possible Muslim faith instead of his goals and views as a leader. The amount of news coverage spent on Obama's religion overshadowed everything else in the election race, and created much controversy. Rumors and speculation influenced voters of the democratic side to vote against Obama because of his faith. Over 50% of the religion-focused campaign coverage was due to Obama.
Being a liberal voter myself, I chose not to vote against him merely on the speculation that Obama was in fact a muslim before converting himself to a christian. I do not believe a candidate's goals and values will be altered by his/her's religious views. Their ability to make changes for the better for our country keeps me believing.
I do not think a man or woman's religious values should alter their performance in any position, and furthermore, I do no think their religion is anyone's business but their own. If this is what the newsreporters and televisions stations want to cover, instead of the real issues, then so be it, but they will lose my attention quickly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I completely agree. It is necessary for us to focus on political values and the plans to accomplish political goals. This election focused far too much on menial and irrelevant issues. Whether President-Elect Obama was Muslim or not, the key question should be "what will he do in office?"
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Andrew as well. I found it absurd that the media was trying to point fingers at Obama for his religlious background and furthermore the fact that the media was relaying false messages about his religous prefernces was an insult to our country.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to say you are right but the media will target anything negative about an influential individual to persuade others to think differently of them. It bothered me to think the election this time around was also targeted due to the race factor yet no one seemed to take into consideration Obama is black and white. Although he recieved a lot of negative publicity, I think this election was an event that will always be remembered.
ReplyDeleteI feel that a lot of that election as covered by the media depicted both candidates pointing the finger at one another. I agree that there should be a separation of church and state powers, but that's not the way our society runs and I don't know if Presidents will ever be free of religious backgrounds being a main part of their candidacy. In fact, if we remember from history the only President not to be elected on faith was Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well written piece, but unfortunately it seems that values and traditions are going to continue being a part of peoples lives and many people in this country have faith. I personally am agnostic but, oh well.
Keep up the good work
Encore! Encore! Lets separate church and state not only for moral reasons but because it's 2009. But not only because it's 2009 but because we had a woman and an african american run for president. Also, were free as a nation and more than ever it is acceptable to be yor own person, have your own opinions and express yourself in anyway you choose. Whether you are a homosexal, a muslim, a cross-dresser, a vegan, an abstract artist, a liberal, a Harry Potter enthuist, someone who has ran 6 marathons, or owns every game system on the market, yo are you. And your religion, race nor gender should never be the deciding factor on your status as a perfesstional. Come on people, sometimes it's okay to color outside of the lines!
ReplyDeleteprofessional**
ReplyDelete