A Young, Progressive New Yorker AGAINST Caroline Kennedy for Senate.

All the buzz in the choice for the replacement of Hillary Clinton has taken a sharp turn from a discussion of strong, qualified Upstate and Downstate politicians to one woman: Caroline Kennedy.  The media is jumping at the possibility of another Kennedy rising to political prominence.  However, this should not be a choice as to whether or not to carry on a political dynasty for Governor David Paterson.  As a citizen of the State in question, New York, I believe that Paterson’s choice should instead be what is best for the very troubled state of New York.  Don’t get me wrong, I am Progressive person, who agrees with Kennedy on a multitude of issues.  Putting that aside, the question remains as to whether or not she is the right person for the job.

Usually, when I say that I am from New York, the question that is posed to me is “Oh really, what borough?”.  The sad part is that the whole state of New York gets overshadowed by the City of New York.  In talking to my fellow Upstaters, animosity can be heard in their voices as they describe the lack of attention that Upstate New York receives.  David Paterson’s selection of Caroline Kennedy would just be another slap in the face for Upstate New York, who has not had a Senator from their own back yard since 1909 (Good Ole, Elihu Root of Clinton, New York.)  The face that Upstate has not had one of their own represent them in the United States Senate for so long is just shameful, and now Governor Paterson has a chance to change that with his power of appointment.

Caroline Kennedy is someone who I agree with, alot, she is a very charismatic individual who quite possible has a bright future in the political scene.  However, the fact remains that her first political job should not be an appointment to the Senate. She is not qualified for this position. She has not served the people of New York in extensive enough of a manner to receive the appointment from Governor Paterson.  Whether deservedly or not, Governor Paterson’s popularity has plummeted in the Upstate region, and he would only be making the problem worse for himself if he does the wrong thing, and appoints Caroline Kennedy to the Senate.

The Young American

And so it begins. As part of a new year, we reinvent ourselves once more. This will be the last time, although I can’t promise.

So, why the blog name change from “Think Youth” to “The Young American“?

To be honest, I’ve wanted to change the blog name since August 25, 2008. We were in Denver for a convention, and just the mention of our blog’s name was a hassle. For some reason, to get the words “Think Youth” out of my mouth was a difficult part, but what was even harder was having the person who had to hear the blog name actually understand what I was saying.

“What is your blog’s name?” she said.

“Think Youth,” I said.

“Thank You? Thank Youth?” she questioned back.

“No ma’am. Think Youth,” I repeated. What followed was the actual spelling of the blog name.

“T-H-I-N-K Y-O-U-T-H!” it ended.

So, I hope that our new blog name not only sounds nicer, but is easier to say. “THE YOUNG AMERICAN.”

Most urls/links will automatically update and redirect to the new domain name, but just to be sure, please update your bookmarks, and thank you, not think youth:

http://www.theyoungamerican.org/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheYoungAmerican
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Update: Just a small update, I just realized that the contact and blogger application forms have been broken and were not actually sending anything. If you have attempted to contact us, or apply to become a blogger, please submit again because the forms now work. Thanks.

LaHood Is The Wrong Choice

What was Obama thinking when he picked Ray LaHood as transportation secretary? This man is one of the least qualified to head a department with such an integral role in reducing global warming. Barack Obama has already been under criticism for his roads heavy stimulus package, but the appointment of this man shows the government agency for transportation will be looking towards 1950s solutions to fix the transportation crisis.

Obama recognizes that transportation planning is directly related to global warming and other pollution, so why would he put a man in office that seems to lack such understanding? LaHood has received over 100,000 dollars in donations from energy and automobile interests, such as the Petroleum Marketers Association. A search on Wikipedia has no political experience on any subcommittees related to transit. It is as if Obama has said “Nobody cares about the DOT so lets give the GOP a bone.”

However LaHood has sponsored some legislation that at least shows a minimal effort to look at alternative forms of transit. He cosponsored a bill to recognize the importance of bicycling for health and recreation but it fails to acknowledge a link to cleaner air, plus that’s about the only positive transportation bill he’s sponsored in the past two congresses. However those are outweighed as he also cosponsored a bill supporting using forests for bio fuel, investing in liquid coal (which has been found to be the biggest global warming contributor), and lastly he voted for June 30th to be “National Corvette Day.”

One of the main reasons I was so excited about an Obama administration was that I felt he would change America from an auto-dependent country to one that rivaled Europe in terms of alternatives. While certaintly better than what Bush adminstration has done for alternative transit, this vision is hardly visionary.

Conservative Christianity: Political Strategy or Ideology

Christian Conservatism is not and ideology not a concept but an ingenious political strategy built by the GOP in the to late 1970’s. In knowing that majority of the the new elderly or golden years American White citizens were apart of the civil rights resistance in the 1950’s and 60’s the GOP played on the distaste for the rising image of Liberalism in American mainly in part to the Hippie Anti War Veitnam  college educated Americans. GOP Leaders and front runners prayed on the political tactic of placing fear in elderly whites that the landscape of America was being entrenched in Liberal Left wing Hippism and even in some cases of late 1970’s Racism in political campaigns to achieve victory in southern states. Yet Christian Conservative political tactic also worked extremely well in Bull collar mid west and Northern rual areas where Republicans could snatch Electoral votes by eating up counties in key states For Example:

Wisconsin
Missouri
Ohio
Indiana
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Illinois
Tennessee
Texas
North Carolina
Virginia
Florida
Minnesota

All These states at that time period were blue collared states which usually meant that the citizens were more likely to be White and Christian. One More Thing Is that All these states have Double Digit Electoral Points. For a Political Canididate to carry these states would always put a canididate over the edge in a close political race. For If a Republican could win over Moderate Republicans who were more likely to be well establish upper class whites in New York annd California and to carry Southern and Mid-Western States would ensure victory. For Democrats in this time caught complete hell in presidential races, Mainly for there siding with Anti War views and Civil Rights which was also a political strategy but we will discuss that in another post. A great Example to why Conservative Christianity is a great political Strategy look at the Democratic Presidents after Nixion Carter won his first presidental race mainly because he was a farm boy a picture of blue collar hard working Southerner and then There was Clinton he was a southern White Male from Hope Arkansas a state in the heart of Conservative America who played his roots t his advanytage along with his liberak views to gain the presidency twice. W. Bush used Moderate-Christian Conservatism to gain his presidency(with help from Jeb.) He became the face of College educated conservatist by using his evangelical faith to push him a head in rural blue collar states. Florida Is a great example of a Moderate Conservative State much like Georgia.Conservative Christian Political Tactic is a great tactic in politics but it is a dirty one because it thrives of negativity and the exploitation of ones faith in achieving political success. John McCain failed with Consevative Christians because unlike his running mate McCain was more on the moderate end of the Right Wing spectrum. Which inevitably lead to the 3-4 point split in the Republican Vote especially when you factor in the economic and Bush factors the GOP is faced with trying to re-define their political ideologies, strategies and tatics to stay in the race with Democrats.