2008 Woodie Awards
Viewpoint
Lawrence's role in Our Election Decisions: Part 1 of 2
J.B. Sivanich
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Opinions & Editorials
In the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, Lawrence University President Jill Beck is leading an effort to encourage Lawrentians to participate in the electoral process. The main and most visible focus of this endeavor is MyElectionDecision.Org, an Internet site created by Lawrence and the University of California-Irvine.
The site functions as a quiz of sorts; you read statements -- usually one extensive paragraph -- from anonymous candidates before rating them on a scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."
At the end of each section -- there are five-- MED reveals which candidate's statement you agreed with most. By the end of the quiz, using a system that takes into account which issues you care about most, the site calculates with which candidate your views align.
There are some links to Wikipedia pages giving background on the issues and at the end you have to ability to post on forums about individual candidates and issues.
With all of these features, the Web site is well-planned but contains many flaws.
The statements that you have to measure are filled with stereotypical political promises, such as, "I promise to make America energy self-sufficient by the end of my second term," but are short on explanations on how the anonymous candidates will implement the policies they are proposing.
Plus, many of the clips are too short to generate any strong feelings and, since the details of the issues are not discussed, many of the quotes seem very similar when, in truth, the positions of the candidates on those issues are not similar.
A good example of this false similarity can be seen by comparing Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's stances on Iraq. Clinton and Obama share many opinions on the nature and importance of the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and both voted against Bush's "surge," but their stances on the larger issue of Iraq and on the Middle East in general differ drastically.
Clinton voted for the war in Congress while Obama opposed it from the beginning. Obama has called for the opening of diplomatic relations with Iran, especially in regard to Iraq, while Clinton voted for a resolution to condemn the Iranian Revolutionary Guards -- a large division of Iran's military -- as a terrorist organization.
The site functions as a quiz of sorts; you read statements -- usually one extensive paragraph -- from anonymous candidates before rating them on a scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."
At the end of each section -- there are five-- MED reveals which candidate's statement you agreed with most. By the end of the quiz, using a system that takes into account which issues you care about most, the site calculates with which candidate your views align.
There are some links to Wikipedia pages giving background on the issues and at the end you have to ability to post on forums about individual candidates and issues.
With all of these features, the Web site is well-planned but contains many flaws.
The statements that you have to measure are filled with stereotypical political promises, such as, "I promise to make America energy self-sufficient by the end of my second term," but are short on explanations on how the anonymous candidates will implement the policies they are proposing.
Plus, many of the clips are too short to generate any strong feelings and, since the details of the issues are not discussed, many of the quotes seem very similar when, in truth, the positions of the candidates on those issues are not similar.
A good example of this false similarity can be seen by comparing Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's stances on Iraq. Clinton and Obama share many opinions on the nature and importance of the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and both voted against Bush's "surge," but their stances on the larger issue of Iraq and on the Middle East in general differ drastically.
Clinton voted for the war in Congress while Obama opposed it from the beginning. Obama has called for the opening of diplomatic relations with Iran, especially in regard to Iraq, while Clinton voted for a resolution to condemn the Iranian Revolutionary Guards -- a large division of Iran's military -- as a terrorist organization.
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