How to Get Gillyan Gowarty's Vote: A Young Voter Manifesto

I may be a young voter, and I may not have had the opportunity to vote in a presidential election yet because of my age, but this does not mean that I do not have opinions. I am a registered Republican, but I will vote based on where the candidate stands on issues that are important to me, even if that candidate is not a Republican. This will most likely be the case in the next election, because I am not at all impressed with the Republican candidates thus far.

Jobs

I am a student, but I will be graduating this coming May, so student aid is not at the top of my priority list at this point. I am much more concerned about being able to get a job and being able to move out of my parent’s house and support myself. I am also concerned about healthcare. My health is far from perfect, and if I cannot find a job that will allow me to purchase my own health insurance, I am going to be in big trouble. I am currently on my parent’s healthcare plan, which is great for now, but it is not a long-term plan. I do not necessarily agree with Obama’s bill that will allow children to be on their parents’ healthcare plan until they are 26. To some degree, I think this is a good idea, because if I should be unable to find a job right away, I will still be protected. However, I think it is encouraging children to stay in their parents’ homes and live off of them without even looking for a job, because it is not necessary. I think this is wrong. I do live with my parents right now, and I am very thankful for that, but I do not look at it as a long-term solution. I want to be able to move out on my own and support myself. This is why I went to college. I would like to get married someday, but my mother always taught me the importance of being able to live independent of a man, as she has done and could do now if it becomes necessary. This leads me to my next point.

End Gender Inequality

In order to get my vote, do not talk down to me because I am a woman. Do not tell me how I should live my life or what my duties are. If I choose to have children, that will be my decision. If this does occur, I will still have a career, as my mother always did. It is not feasible to live and raise a family on one income, unless that one income is substantial. There is also the rising issue of birth control. Outlawing it or making it unavailable to women is absolutely ridiculous. There are too many people as it is who have children that they cannot afford. Outlawing birth control would only add to that problem. In addition to that, birth control is not always used to solely prevent pregnancy. That is the main purpose of it, yes, but there are other benefits to women. I was prescribed a birth control pill to treat and prevent my polycystic ovary syndrome. Without it, I would probably need surgery in the future, which I will not be able to pay for if I cannot buy health insurance. It all comes together.

Gillyan Gowarty
Communication Studies
Wilkes 2013

How to Get Joshua Pellew's Vote: A Young Voter Manifesto

As a young voter, and college student certain issues in this upcoming election matter. Mainly job creation, health care, foreign affairs, and now forever increasing fuel prices matter to me the most. The first time I voted in 2008 the issues were about change getting out of these financial deficits that were still currently dealing with. I feel that this upcoming election we voters have a very difficult choice on our hands. Do we stay with our current president who (I feel) has done most of what he can or do we elect a new president (one of the republic candidates) to take control and possibly change things.

Currently the vote on the republic candidates is between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney and I personally thing neither one of them has a decent plan for changing the current issues that concern me. As a young American currently heading into the job market what jobs will be available to me? Will I be able to get a job in my field willing to pay enough so that I can obtain my own medical insurance, pay back my student loans, and even maintain a living on my own?

This is what I’m afraid of the most. I’m not sure I fully believe in any candidates plan for change in the current administration, I think there should be a complete revamp of congress with people who have experience and some general compassion for not just the middle class but for all people. I am not a strong supporter of anyone of these candidates even though Santorum’s solutions moderately speak to me. I feel he is only winning because his financial contributions and popularity not for his solutions. Although, I am not happy with my choices now that Ron Paul is a “non-factor” in this race but the president’s administration has not completely failed us, we are getting there little by little.

Another issue of mine is the U.S. involvement in foreign affair how we must come to the rescue of every country that is in the mist of civil warfare and spread our democracy, but how can we spread our government when our government is beginning to fail us? I feel the U.S. should stay out of foreign affairs unless issues of genocide and civil war are at stake. The problem is between the uses of Soft power (humanitarianism) vs. Hard power (military). The U.S. should only focus on regional conflict and global security not spending money and sacrificing U.S. personal. With many of my family members as active duty soldiers including my youngest sister, I would hate to see the U.S. involved in matters it has no business in.

Overall, the U.S. and the state it’s in have left me wondering for my future. I’m that who every wins the presidential election knows that in order to restore the country everyone must reach some sort of common ground otherwise I’m moving to Canada.

Joshua Pellew

Communication Studies

Wilkes 2012

Can you hear us now? A Young Voter's Rally Cry

We are young and we want them to listen. We want them to stop ignoring us. They see us as lazy, inarticulate, and angry. They see us as too apathetic to have our own opinions. When we, the young voter, have many opinions. Opinions about the crippling issues this country now faces, opinions about they, the older politicians and leaders who discount us because they think we have no money, and no power to offer them. But what they don’t know is, we have more power than ever and we are not giving it away.

We are young and we believe in people. More than ever we can communicate with all people all over the world faster than ever before. Through social media we are able to see people’s faces, to see our hopes, our dreams, to see our sorrows, our struggles, to see our lives, and most importantly to see that inside we are all the same. That no one is better than anyone else. That everyone is equal.  Through our time connecting, we also realize that we all want the same thing. We want someone to care. We want our government to care about us once again. We connect with everyone; everyone except our own political leaders who label our innovation as nothing but a fad. While they should be using it to educate themselves about us, as we have educated ourselves. To communicate with us as we have communicated with each other.

We are young and we stand here together today unified, unlike our own government. Our own government that has only become concerned with party lines, lobbyists, and their next paycheck.  Yet they dismiss us, our generation, as the selfish ones. As a bunch of kids who understand nothing. When in fact, we understand the most important thing, what is right and what is wrong. Politicians don’t always understand this or pretend not to. We know it is wrong to judge someone based on their religion, race, or sexuality. We know it is wrong to deny someone their basic rights as a human being because they love someone. We know it is wrong to let people suffer jobless and debt-ridden as congress vacations months out of a year. We know it is wrong to let people die in another land because they don’t have some resource we desire when we have the medical capability to save them. We know it is wrong to spend billions of dollars on killing people, sometimes innocent people, while our own economy is flailing. We know it is wrong to censor our internet, our communication.

We are young and we know it is wrong to lie. To lie about how much money you make. To lie about what you can do for us. To lie about what you have done in the past. Or more often than not, to lie as an excuse for doing something that we know is wrong. We are sick of the lies, not just from politicians, but from the older generations of this country who run our markets and our media. We need someone to tell us the truth not just what we or more likely their donor or political party wants to hear. When we learn the truth we learn reality; and by understanding today’s reality we will have a better ability to improve our future reality. The truth leads to freedom. We know that is right. They are afraid of the truth as they are secretly afraid of us.

We are young and we understand that our future appears dimmer than any American generation before us. Our future, America’s future, is like a lone flashlight running out of battery power in a dark cave. Because they have forgotten about us along with our crippling student loans, our unstable jobless future, our despicably biased education system, our rising oil and food prices, and our inexcusable gender and homosexual discrimination. Yes. It is up to us to change those batteries before that light is gone completely. Together we need to stand- up, we need to make them listen to what is important to us, We need to take action by convincing them to finally take action. Otherwise, we, The United States of America, will be left in darkness.

We are young and we need to tell this country what is right. We will do this by doing what our generation knows best, connecting on social media and forming a united front for young voter awareness. We will take to our Twitter accounts, our Facebook accounts, and our blogs to express our opinions to our many friends and followers at least once every day.  We will use You Tube to send our messages of frustration to our political leaders until they listen. We will flood our congressman’s Inbox with emails about issues we care about until they finally respond. But most importantly we will use our social media to organize as one collective voice that they no longer can avoid. If they continue to put in their earplugs, we will go to their doorstep and ring the bell.

In August, we mobilized united young voters will march at the Republican National Convention. In September, the Capitol building. They cannot hide from us anymore. We will make them have to look at us, to look upon the faces of their people, to look upon the faces of their future.

We are young and we have something to say, we will tell them what we have to say.
We are young and we can make a difference. We will make a difference.
We are young and we are ready.
We are young and we vote.

Sarah Mitrotz

Communication Studies 

Wilkes 2013

21st Century News: The Colbert Report

I watched "The Colbert Report" to document the coverage of the 2012 GOP Presidential candidates. Stephen Colbert's character on the show is that of a conservative Catholic who always has something to say. But this is done in a satirical way that does not push those beliefs onto his viewers. The main audience that Colbert is aiming towards is young college aged adults who would probably watch "The Daily Show" that is on before this program. Although the show is intended for the younger crowd, my 72 year-old grandmother loves to watch his show and actually agrees with some of the points that he makes.

The main premise of the show is to entertain, it is on Comedy Central. It should not be taken as a hard news show that people should get all their information from. But writing it off as total drivel should not be done either. Other television programs try to showcase themselves as unbiased and as a reliable news source, when they are nothing more than opinion. "The Colbert Report" plays off of this idea by presenting the information in a satirical version of these other shows. While other station show only what they believe in, "The Colbert Report" gathers all the clips and shows how silly the other networks are. Over the weeks of watching the program clips from Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN and articles from The New York Post were used to show the slant from those media sources. I think that by incorporating the different views "The Colbert Report" offers a broader view on issues rather than watching only one of the other networks.

Behind every joke there is some truth, and through watching the program I was actually informed about some events happening in the political world. Some of the guests that Colbert had on his program also provided a sense of information and legitimacy like Christiane Amanpour. She is a well traveled reporter who is well respected by most people and yet she went on "The Colbert Report". Another guest that was on the show was Robert Kagan who is a foreign policy advisor to Mitt Romney. Colbert asked Kagan about what the Obama administration had done in foreign policy, like the death of Bin Laden or al-Gaddafi. Now instead of crucifying either side, Kagan conceded that Obama did well even though he works for Romney.

The main candidates that Colbert talked about were Romney and Gingrich. They were all highlighted and then dragged through the mud over the course of the two weeks. Even Obama was featured on the show as both a positive and a negative. I think that this really showcased what some of the younger Americans think about the presidential race, that it's a joke. An example was when Newt Gingrich was being sued for using The Eye of the Tiger as his theme without getting permission. In retaliation, the original lead singer of Survivor came on and sang Gringrich's book without permission. Colbert then provided that the Washington Post said that 80% of inmates would vote for Gingrich.

Romney was behind Santorum in the polls in Michigan which is Romney's home state. Then the show played an awkward clip of Romney from C-SPAN from campaigning in Michigan. Romney just rambled on about how the trees are the perfect height in Michigan, his love of lakes, and his car knowledge. Colbert then commented on the perfect height of the trees so a person could hang themselves after they lose their home state primary.

Santorum was mentioned less but he was still represented. A "Face the Nation" clip showed Santorum saying that we should be the earth's husband because he claimed that Obama was a radical environmentalist who is a member of a tree hugging theology. Colbert then made a joke about being the earth's husband because we would "be on top as God intended and frack her all night long." Then they played a clip from 2008 of Santorum saying that Satan in attacking the United States alone. Colbert then made an argument that because Satan's eyes are directed only on the US, God must be causes the famines, genocides, and disasters in all the other countries.

In conclusion, I think that "The Colbert Report" presents a more balanced perspective than some other biased media outlets such as Fox News or MSNBC. Young voters have to be exposed to what is happening in the news and if they watch it on a Comedy Central program that is better than being totally uninformed about the world. Now I know that I am extremely cynical and can dissect humor and lies, but others might not and take this show at face value. But there are a lot of people who do the same for other opinion based news shows. Overall I think that the whole political field is a very entertaining arena and Colbert is just capitalizing on it.

Kristina Seiger

Communication Studies

Wilkes 2012

How to Get Mike Dargatis's Vote: A Young Voter Manifesto

In order for one of this year’s presidential candidates to receive my vote, there are several issues and core beliefs I would like for them to focus on. Being a young voter, and this being the first election I’m really involved in, I’d like the candidate that will be receiving my vote to follow certain guidelines that are important to me.

The number one quality I look for in a candidate, regardless of issues, is being relatable. I want a candidate that I feel has my best interests in mind, for the reason that they can understand where people like me are coming from. I also want my candidate to be for the common man, not a typical wealthy politician who is not very concerned with the common man.

As for issues for this upcoming election, there are a few that concern me as a young voter.

Jobs

Obviously as a college student close to graduation, I am concerned about the job market upon entering the work force. With unemployment at such a high rate, and young college graduates not getting jobs at this time, I need a candidate who will make sure young college students will have a better chance at a good job upon graduation.

Student Loans/Federal Aid

Another important issue for young collegiate voters is concerning the incredibly high amount of money students have to owe upon graduation. I want a candidate who is concerned about these high amounts of money students are owing, and who will fight to produce a more efficient system for people to go to college affordably.

Economy

Obviously, the economy as a whole is one of the primary issues in this year’s election. Our nation is currently in an unstable state as for as economics goes, so I need a candidate who is focused on turning the country around to reach prosperity once again.

Mike Dargatis

Communication Studies

Wilkes 2013