Presidential Race 2012

After two years of not using this blog I decided to start it up again with a different theme. One about politics, and some of my likely naive suggestions for the 2012 and future presidential races. Here is my first suggestion.

I believe that the RNC should have each candidate or his staff write up a list of answers to the 20 most “important” issues of the day for Republicans. These issues will be written by the RNC, and while some might conclude there is bias as to the choice of questions, I feel the RNC cannot be overtly biased without disenfranchising many voters. They also have other means of creating biases that are better than this since the candidates can answer this any way they choose. 

1) It will draw political debate back to the issues. Currently, political debate is mostly about the candidates, their character and their electability. This is important, but there is so much less discussion about the issues now. The Republican Party stands for one thing, the Democratic Party another. Many of the discussions I have been in and have seen have only barely brushed on the issues, saying something along the lines of Santorum supports the Department of Education, and think that is a sufficient attack on why he should not be president. The issues are clearly underdeveloped in political debate in general currently, and many people have difficulty taking stances on issues. These opinions can both start discourse between different candidates actual beliefs, as well as help people formulate opinions who are not sure right now.

2) Many people do not have the time or resources to find a candidate’s opinions on every issue. Even if they do, many candidates historically have issued seemingly contradictory statements on issues, or people are unsure as to what their opinions are. As a result, if I believe my strongest issue is abortion, I really don’t know what candidate to vote for in the status quo, because I am not sure who has the most similar beliefs to me. A voting record makes sense, but as many people are fast to point out, people vote different ways on bills for a plethora of reasons, and so the voting record is insufficient to truly determine a candidate’s stance. This will make their opinions clear, and like my last point help people form opinions meaning we have both a more thoughtful and more educated group of people voting. At a minimum, it will get more people to research candidates. I know many people who right now have said they don’t follow politics because it is too confusing. With only one website to find everything you need to know to make a more informed decision, I believe it is a good start to get more people educated.

3) It will ensure if candidates change their beliefs they have strong reasons why and make flip flopping extremely obvious. Currently, flip flopping is seen as a problem, which I do not believe it should be.The problem is it not being justified. Opinions change, I’m sure yours have since you were 8. The question is why. If it is because it polls better, then you’ll see them struggle to write an answer. If it is because they truly care you will be able to see it in their post. They also won’t be as rushed into flip flopping since you will now need to justify your new opinion. And opinions shouldn't change that much during the campaign trail. 

4) It will make sure candidates have truly thought about the race before they entered. Single issue candidates are great in small doses, but if they become the leader of the race, we prefer if they have thought about the whole range of issues as a presidential candidate must have. Caucusing is great, it shows your organizational ability; let’s see your ability to think first.

5) It will help single issue candidates. Many candidates might not have a strong advocacy on certain issues, and could be educated by other candidates. If I am a strong abortion advocate, I can help one of the candidates on that issue and let them run on that platform for me. I can actually physically help educate a candidate about an issue, or help them defend the issue as their abortion spokesperson. In addition, if your issue didn’t make the top 20, you will realize that you need to do a lot more work to put it into the minds of the people.

Other issues:
Time Commitment: Overall, these 20 issues will not require too much writing, as most of these candidates have written books, and they can be recycled for newsletters, support for future candidates and for discussions on forums- materials that the candidates are providing all the time. In addition, if everyone is required to do it, it doesn’t cost you days on the campaign trail since everyone is doing it. 

People might feel disenfranchised from the RNC if their issue isn’t one: First, I would argue the top 20 issues would cover almost any of the major disputes between and within parties, and if your issue isn’t one of them it would make it obvious you need to campaign to change that, instead of currently believing it matters. I mean… if the top 5 issues are barely talked about in political debates, and yours isn’t in the top 20, it’s nice to know you need to do something. In addition, it will at least spark debate about what the top 20 issues should be, and help candidates realize that they need to change their campaigns due to responses to this.