I still remember when I registered to vote. Back then, you had to be 21 to vote, and at that time you had to pay a poll tax. In Alabama, you also had to pass a quick test to be sure you could read English proficiently. I don't know if that was the case outside the South or not. I do remember that getting rid of those requirements was one of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. Being white, I never knew if it was true that "Colored" people were given much harder materials to try to read than "White" people, but that is what protesters claimed at the time. As I remembered, the poll tax was just a couple of dollars, so I never did understand what the big fuss was about that.
As far as I can remember, I have voted in every local, state, and national election since then. I consider it my duty as an American to exercise this right, and believe in the old adage that you can't complain about politics unless you vote.
Now that the caucuses are over, and the candidates are starting to advertise on TV in Alabama for the upcoming Primaries, I thought it might be interesting to take one of these online quizzes that are supposed to tell you which candidates match a person's views on a variety of issues. As all such quizzes go, there were some questions where I didn't like any of the answer choices, but all in all this one was very thought provoking. And the results were interesting and useful to me personally.
Does that mean I'm going to vote for the candidate who matched my views? Not necessarily, but I think it does give me an idea of which candidates I should pay the closest attention to.
So, here's the results of my quiz:
80% John McCain
75% Mitt Romney
74% Mike Huckabee
65% Fred Thompson
61% Tom Tancredo
59% Bill Richardson
58% Hillary Clinton
58% Rudy Giuliani
57% John Edwards
57% Barack Obama
51% Chris Dodd
48% Ron Paul
44% Joe Biden
40% Mike Gravel
32% Dennis Kucinich
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
2 comments:
My political science teacher told us that Americans pick their party and their candidates based on their parents, church, neighbors and friends. They want someone who feels right to them more than someone whose views and decisions will be in keeping with their own. I have read many blogs of friends who say they are not going to vote for the person they feel would make the best president but instead are voting for the person who they think has the best chance of winning. Me, I spent a great deal of time reading the web sites of each of the candidates and base my vote on the person I think will improve the things I feel need improving, like education, crime and poverty. Even though I know she will never win. I think the questions in those polls are leading in their wording.
I would definitely agree. Marsha, that these kinds of polls show bias in the wording and choice of questions.
I was a little surprised that McCain ended up on top of my list. I think I'll take the same one again, just to see which of the questions I was answering headed me in his direction.
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