Political Disscussion in my Social Studies Class...

The other day there was a political disscussion in my Social Studies class. We got onto the subject of the presidential election. One girl said something about Hilary Clinton, and, she and I are in an honors social studies class, so I might be totally wrong about this, but she seemed like the kind of person who didn't know much about politics, or the candidates for '08. I go to a public school in Alabama, so of course the comment was negative, and I've begun wondering wheather I should have called her out for it. I don't know much about Clinton's ideas myself, and because of this, I don't have much of an opinion on her at all. What I do know is I don't think someone should bad-mouth a candidate unless they know where the candidate stands on issues, and not have an uninformed opinion just because it's the popular opinion. Should I have said something? I think I should have...

 

You don't need to know where Hilary stands on issues because she doesn't. She has no platform; every major issue she has commented on she has provided contradictory statements for.

 

Welcome to American politics. As you go through life you will find that most people don't have a clue about most, if any candidates. They just like sound bites.

If you don't know anything about Hillary, how could you have called her out on anything? Educate yourself so you can educate others.

 

Wow. That was completely insightful.

Twisted- The only way to fix your issue is to spend some time going to each candidate's website and reading a little bit about them. Clinton may not be for you, perhaps Obama is, or you decide on a Republican.

The important thing is that you go and research it yourself and form your own opinion. You may not vote in this election, but it is important that you start now becoming informed with the candidates. Plus you will be able to make informed opinions in class discussions. I can bet you that this won't be the last time the general election will be discussed in a class. You will be hearing this stuff until November.

As to the girl in class - the next time someone makes a statement that is truly uninformed (and you know that it is, but don't know much about the subject yourself) - keeping quiet is fine, or you can ask them to better explain/defend their position. If they are just spouting of rhetoric, they will eventually tangle themselves up in a knot and end up looking foolish. All you would have done was to have them explain themselves better - not arguing with them.

 

I second that motion.

 

I think it takes more than just going to a cadidates website. That is a good place to start, but doing some research could be helpful as well to find out if the politician has followed what they are claiming in the past. Thanks to the internet getting this information can be much easier today.