Election Reflection

Wow, the election felt so far away for the longest time, but now it is over. Barak Obama will now lead our country, and hopefully make positive changes. Throughout the election, many aspects have influenced and definitely impacted the election. First of all there is technology. This election is unique from the previous elections because of the impact technology had on it. Although many adults were influenced by technology, the youth was more susceptible to being influenced by technology because we have yet to be directly involved in the process, and therefore we are trying to determine where we stand in politics, and the influence of television, internet, and the radio is definitely effective. After listening to the NPR interview about the impact of technology on the youth vote made me realize how much we are influenced by what we see and hear. The NPR interview discusses how the youth is so enthusiastic toward the election because for many it is their first time voting. Also, they said that technology is like a phenomenon, and the campaign issues are surfacing everywhere, and the youth is formulating opinions towards the presidential candidates. They described the graph of Obama’s supporters as a hockey stick he started out slow, and then the youth got involved and his supporters spiked up. They also mention that the youth vote is really the vote of the state especially in Ohio and Texas because of all the colleges. The students tend to influence one another, and their vote swings the vote of their entire state. That is really significant! Finally, NPR suggested that the Democratic Party is more galvanized, and therefore was able to gain the youth vote. The other key influential technology during this election was SNL. SNL and moreover Tina Fey proved to be extremely influential said a FirstView Study. Researcher Mike Dabadie ran the study on the impact of the SNL skits. This study showed that ten percent of voters were directly influenced by the skits! Also, the study revealed that voters were interested in restoring trust in government more so than the economy. The skits captured the essence of the politicians while using their weaknesses to prove points. I personally thought the SNL skits were hilarious, and they really make you rethink who should be in charge of running the country.

The MSNBC discussion of the Civil Rights Movement was very moving. The Congressman described the suffering and past pain was so worth it. He says that it is a victory for America because it is finally a union. He brings up Martin Luther King Jr, and his dream. The election of Obama as president really made Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream come true. African Americans worked so hard for so many years to become one with the white Americans, and it finally happened. America finally left discrimination and segregation in the past to come together as one to make a better future. It is truly a historic election, and it is a huge triumph throughout the world. We made history by finally coming together to elect a president based on the issues and not the color of their skin.



I was following the Election Geek blog for my political blog. After the election, the blog had tons of posts. This was a neutral blog that was neither republican nor democratic so the posts were pretty receptive of Obama’s victory, but some posts were of disappointment. There is also an interesting post about the stock market taking the largest post election dive. It links you to an article about this drop in the market. The most interesting post was the one that compared the vote of the youth US News said the youth had a large impact, but MSNBC said that the youth was not influential. These articles were both very good arguments, but I agree that the youth vote definitely had an impact.