The Media’s Role in an Election Year
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Why The Green Party Matters
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21st Century Insurance is a leader in their field, but they aren’t the only insurance company around. While they may be the best, there are plenty of other companies out there to choose from and you know that. However, what if you weren’t allowed to know about the best companies, or even the other lesser companies? What if you were only always given two companies to choose from no matter how good or bad they were? You wouldn’t like to be limited, now would you?
In the political system, we have the unfortunate time of being given only two parties to choose from. The Green Party is often not one of those big parties. It’s a shame because the world needs the Green Party and other parties just like it, but try telling that to the boys in Washington.
The simple thing is that the more ideas there are in Washington, the more we can find the path to positive change. With only two parties working for change, we are really losing out on a lot of interesting and helpful ideas.
What the Green Party provides is a platform for the sharing of ideas that are a little off the beaten path. They believe that there shouldn’t be the acceptance of money from big corporations and they are against the idea of a government that doesn’t work tirelessly for the people. We all agree that they should be working hard for the American people, but the Green Party is the only party that seems to base their entire political system around it.
The Green Party gives the American people another option. Another option is what will keep the rest of the political system honest. Without honesty, we are going to be staring at the same old broken system we have had in place for years.
The Tea Party Movement
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The hot topic in politics today is the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party began to emerge in 2009 through a series of protests. It started out as a frustrated group of Americans protesting together and has evolved into an actual political party. One of the originating protests did involve tea bags. Graham Makohoniuk invited people to mail a tea bag to congressmen and senators to protest the government bailouts of auto makers.
One of the common ideas that Tea Party Members agree on is that government has gotten too big and too powerful. Nine out of ten members are unhappy with the country’s direction and see the federal debt affecting their future adversely. Their top concerns are the economy and jobs.
The Tea Party supports internet freedom. No regulation or tax on the internet. They support all political meetings of a non security measure being broadcast on
C-Span and the internet. They support demanding a balanced budget and requiring 2/3 majority vote for any tax hikes. The Tea Party favors ending big government spending by imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate, plus the percentage of population growth.
The Gadsden flag has become the symbol for the Tea Party. The “Don’t Tread on Me” flag appears at many rallies and meetings of the Tea Party. The first hour the Tea Party movement had a website on the internet, it had over 115,000 hits.
There are concerns that the Tea Party could cause problems in the primaries. A Tea Party victory could divide some parties when it comes time to vote in the primaries giving the other candidate the advantage.
There is no clear cut agenda for the “Tea Party” thus far. It seems to be a lot of discontented groups banning together to form a somewhat organized party. They have gained some victories in the primaries and have garnered attention for themselves. If the reader is interested in politics, some research on the Tea Party agenda would be worthwhile as it seems, for now, it has staying power
Helping Children Understand Politics
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During major elections, children see politicians on television insulting one another. Generally, the closer the vote date gets,the nastier they will be. They also hear their parents discuss the debatable topics. Although kids don’t really understand what it is and how elections work, they are still very curious to learn about it. They are interested in what happens in the world they live in. As parents, it is our responsibility to explain what politics are and how each person in America has the privilege to vote.
There are ways to open the line of communication and get the conversation started. One way to do this is have your child watch the news with you one night. After each segment, talk about what you saw and answer any questions the child has. This will open their eyes to a new way of thinking and a better understanding of politics.
Undoubtedly, your child will have questions about the war in Iraq since this is still one of the top issues going on in our world today. When giving them an explanation, use simple words that they can comprehend. Make sure they understand why our military became involved. Make a conscience effort not to frighten them with what you tell them as that is the last thing you would want to do.
Once your child understands what basic politics means, as they grow they will continue to learn about the different issues at hand and be able to vote for them. Teaching the Democratic or Republican way at this point is really not necessary. When they become an adult they will develop their own views and decide which party to join. Most children will choose the party that their parents support, as that has been what they have been taught from the beginning.
If parents are educated on the basics of politics, they will find it easier to communicate with their children about it. It may be helpful to get a book about that topic and read it together with the kids. You both may learn something new.
Fight for the Right of Earth
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You have probably watched the documentary by Al Gore, called “An Inconvenient Truth”. A lot of people believed it, but yet there are still a lot of people that are skeptics. There is a substantial amount of evidence that the planet is having serious problems, but there only a few people that are fighting to save it. It is very difficult to discount the fact that the Earth is sick and something needs to be done about it. However, the government and many companies do not want to help because they have a lot to gain from not helping. Although, not all parties in the government want to continue to exploit the natural resources that the planet has.
Green parties are advocates for the environment. They have a lot of issues to tackle ,such as how to decrease the effects of global warming, how to slow down the creation of holes in our ozone layer and, of course, how to become less reliant on oil. A lot of people feel that others are taking it to the extreme because they are calling for people to go back to basics. In reality, this is true. There are many ways people can conserve energy in their homes, they can even power their homes by solar energy.
A lot of countries have green parties, but of course, they belong to the minority. In the next ten years, there will be a growing number of supporters for the Green Party. You will find more and more celebrities getting involve with the Green Party. They are trying to spread the word that everyone needs to fight for their environment and their planet. They need to face reality that they cannot continue what they were doing ten years ago because they might end up furthering the destruction of their planet. They should start looking for alternative means of energy and, of course, alternative ways of getting our basic needs. Green parties definitely help spread the awareness for protecting the planet but, like every movement, they have a lot of hurdles that they need to get over.
What is a Green Party?
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Almost everyone has heard this term, Green Party. Yet not a lot of people really know what it means. Basically, a Green Party is a political party that is organized formally and is based on the main principles of green politics. So what is green politics? Well, it is plainly a political ideology that gives high priority on environmental goals such as grassroots policy and also participatory democracy. There are a lot of people that are now supporting the Green Party movement because of the fact there is a growing awareness on the protection of the environment and also alleviating the effects of global warming. It has been around for so many years however, the past ten years or so, there has been increased number of followers of this type of party.
Green parties normally call for some sort of social reform in order to decrease the amount of abuse of all our natural resources. They are advocates of sustainable energy which calls for less reliance on oil which is not a renewable source of energy. Some of them have already made bills pass in the legislative bodies of their country in order to development sustainable energy resources. Green parties also focus on the health of the environment and also, of course, the human being. This is very important especially in today’s day and age because almost all our natural resources are being depleted because of capital gains and also because of basic human greed.
Green parties support non-violence. That is why a lot of them opposed the war of terrorism which was mainly supported by other parties. Because they adhere to the spirit of nonviolence, most green parties feel that the war on terrorism somehow curtailed the civil rights of people. In the United States, a country where there is a huge amount of support for the war on terrorism, green parties are now calling for an end to it. Although, a lot of people feel that they are taking it to a very extreme level, there is still a growing amount of people that support green parties.
Green Parties in the USA
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In the United States there is an association that was created called The Green Party of the United States whose goals are similar to that of other green parties in the world. This particular party was created around ten years ago. Prior to the formation of the National Green Party, there were a lot of state affiliates and they were being recognized only state wide. The Association of State Green Parties became very popular when Ralf Nader ran for president in the 1996 and the 2008 elections, but unfortunately lost the elections.
The basic ideologies of the Green Party of the United States is diversity, peace, non-violence, and environmentalism. The good thing about this is that there is someone actually fighting for the betterment of the environment that people live in today. They are also advocates of sustainable energy, which is the creation of energy from renewable energy such as solar power, wind, and geothermal electricity. They are highly opposed to nuclear energy because it still has waste and radioactive waste is very difficult to get rid of.
Green parties today are gaining much more influence because more people are now supporting it. With the increased awareness of the current situation, more people are now following the principles of green parties. There are a lot of big companies that are now trying to become greener by creating products that can be recycled or reused and also by becoming much more efficient in their use of natural resources such as oil. Green parties however, do not like to get donations from big corporate companies because they feel that they will have to follow the business when creating their policies and also the things that they are fighting for. There are a lot people that are now trying to fight for the environment. Also, there are many influential people that are trying to recruit others to actually join the green movement. Supporters of green parties vary from different races, social backgrounds, nationalities and religion. Of course, you cannot discount the fact that there are many people that are oppose the Green Party.
