learn more about politics

I’m taking a political science class this semester called “The Science of American Political Campaigns,” and it’s pretty much the coolest class ever. Not only have I learned more about the candidates and the current election, but I’ve learned a lot about the history of voting in America, how it works in different states, etc. I ALSO decided who I want to vote for in the primaries and changed my political affiliation from Republican to Democrat so that I can vote on April 22nd.

I’ve accomplished all I set out to do for this goal—I’m going to consider it complete!

I found another cool website called Geek the Vote. It shows where all the presidential candidates stand on issues of science and technology. Pretty awesome! :)

I heard of this new website called Political Base that’s supposed to be an unbiased wiki for all political candidates and their platforms. Looks interesting.

1. Figure out which political party I actually want to be registered with
2. Decide who I support and who I don’t support for the upcoming election and why

I also signed up for a class for next semester called “American Political Campaigns” that looks pretty cool (PL SC 130 at PSU for anyone who’s interested).

I took the Political Compass Test to see kind of roughly where I stand politically:

Economic Left/Right: -1.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.26

So… at least now I have a general idea. I think the next step is to find some reliable news sources (I’ll be looking mainly at podcasts) and think about which issues are really important to me.