The playing field has been leveled. Anyone with internet access – whether they live in London or Omaha – can publish. A degree in journalism or English is no longer essential. As a result, there’s a blog on just about every subject under the sun and attempting to address the global impact of personal publishing can be challenging. For purposes of this assignment and this course, I’ve chosen to focus on the global impact of blogs pertaining to the 2008 U.S. presidential race.
I’ve chosen this topic because I’ve had a lifelong interest in politics and world affairs, and because I believe that what affects one nation affects everyone. We live in a global, multicultural, interconnected society. What happens in the United States affects Mexico and Japan. What happens in Russia affects the United States. I’ve also chosen this topic because the 2008 election is both historic and crucial. No matter which candidate wins in November, they will face a variety of complex global issues pertaining to the environment, the economy, terrorism and human rights, just to name a few.
While attempting to narrow my focus for my blog, I initially came up with the idea of exploring third party candidates. My initial Google search resulted in millions of sites pertaining to third parties. During my research, I came across a term I’d never heard of – transpartisanship. Basically, transpartisanship seeks to bring together people from diverse political backgrounds to transcend political ideology and form pragmatic solutions to issues.
I think this issue is relevant because many Americans have grown tired of the “political circus” and the Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other. While I am a member of a major political party and strongly support one candidate over the other in this year’s election, I understand voter’s dissatisfaction. Some election years, I haven’t felt particularly excited about any candidate. Many Americans believe the United States needs a third major political party. Of course Americans say they want change, but large numbers don’t vote for third party candidates. Maybe they aren’t sure just how much change they want.
During the course of the semester, I will explore the transpartisanship movement and attempt to find out how various groups are coming together and attempting to solve problems. I hope to find at least one or two success stories in coming months.
2 Comments
September 23, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Betty, I wonder if the lack of a third party to gain major standing in American politics has to do largely with our puritanical roots and the strong protestant ethics of good and evil. I am always amazed at how polarized Americans are over issues in general, their desire for a clean black and white, and seriously I consider this a base for our restrictions within the political system.
September 26, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Very good point Kirk. I’d never thought about our puritanical roots and concepts of “good” versus “evil” as playing a role in partisan politics – that may be the case
It will be interesting this semester to explore third parties as well as the emerging transpartisanship movement. Americans have become too polarized – red states, blue states, etc.