(no subject)
This chick Izzy (http://gusterrhoid.livejournal.com/) helped me realize something that I posted as a reply to her comment, but I also wanted to post here to get feedback on myself. She searched through Obama's page and made a list of things he's done/plans to do if he gets elected. Theoretically, this is a good way to get to know our candidates, however my thoughts are this:
"People want to know what our candidates are working for, and what you gave here is a good laundry list of things, but what it seems to be increasingly difficult to find is what EXACTLY they did to accomplish these things.
For example: Stopping genocide in Darfur. That's a good thing. And I see the name of an act next to it, which suggests action. However, what exactly did that act intend to do? What did it ACTUALLY do? What has resulted from the passing of that act? How many people are alive now that would have been dead without said act? What were the unforeseen consequences of it passing? What ACTUAL effect did it have?
Some of these are ideals to be achieved, such as wanting to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell (hopefully with a movement to allow gays openly in the military too, but I guess that's implicit), higher pay for teachers seems good (though does it necessarily lead to better teaching? I don't know. Need to see some research on that.) Anyway, some of them give a good feel for general positions, but I'd like to hear what exactly, in a practical sense, he intends to do to accomplish these things. As in, a multi-step explanation:
1) Pass a bill that does X
2) Doing X is going to have effect Y
3) Effect Y, if not blatantly obvious, is going to accomplish Z by way of etc.etc."
"People want to know what our candidates are working for, and what you gave here is a good laundry list of things, but what it seems to be increasingly difficult to find is what EXACTLY they did to accomplish these things.
For example: Stopping genocide in Darfur. That's a good thing. And I see the name of an act next to it, which suggests action. However, what exactly did that act intend to do? What did it ACTUALLY do? What has resulted from the passing of that act? How many people are alive now that would have been dead without said act? What were the unforeseen consequences of it passing? What ACTUAL effect did it have?
Some of these are ideals to be achieved, such as wanting to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell (hopefully with a movement to allow gays openly in the military too, but I guess that's implicit), higher pay for teachers seems good (though does it necessarily lead to better teaching? I don't know. Need to see some research on that.) Anyway, some of them give a good feel for general positions, but I'd like to hear what exactly, in a practical sense, he intends to do to accomplish these things. As in, a multi-step explanation:
1) Pass a bill that does X
2) Doing X is going to have effect Y
3) Effect Y, if not blatantly obvious, is going to accomplish Z by way of etc.etc."