Elections

in today's political environment it takes a different kind of campaign than traditional campaigning. multiple types of funds are given to campaigners such as soft and hard money, soft being indirectly given through advertising or sponsoring supplies in unlimited quantities, and hard money being funds directly given to the campaign as a means of support which is limited in $5000 for big businesses and $2000 in personal contributions. Political Action Committees or PAC's are organizations established by corporations to fund and support campaigns by channeling contributions of their members into campaigns. these are important to them because without the support of large influential companies a campaign will have trouble campaigning against their opponents who do have the support of PAC's. Jeff Smith had a very hard time with this problem due to his opponent Carnahan having the political influence of his fathers former spot as Governor. Media bias plays a major role in an election. if an electoral candidate has an unprecedented blunder in a speech or personal issue from the past, the media may skew this for the sake of ratings. demographics can push certain biased opinions to be seen more often than others to improve ratings in that area. voter turnout is a prime aspect of elections. a modern day concern is low voter turnout. voter turnout is the amount or percent of registered voters that actually go out and vote on election day. low voter turnout to me is both a good and a bad thing. the positive within this is that if everyone was forced to make a vote without any prior knowledge of a candidates policies or plans for their presidency could make a horrible decision and essentially cause the end of the world in an extreme case. the negative of low voter turnout is that many Americans today sit and complain about how they disagree with government policies yet they didn't attempt to do anything about it. political parties also play a part at the core of an election. this also has to do with demographics in that a certain area of people may be conservative thus making it difficult for a liberal candidate to win. if all of the above factors play correctly throughout a campaign, a candidate should have a high chance of winning an election. if a candidate has attempted to gain some ground on their opponent and has not done so, the candidate may choose the immoral route and play dirty. personal mistakes and lies appear to be present in almost every campaign today (or at least in Illinois). political attacks through television advertising and biased news stories about a candidate are usually sponsored by opposing candidates to make themselves look like the better choice.

When freedoms and protections collide there is usually an uproar over the result whether it be positive or negative. freedom of the press is one of our most protected rights but like all has restrictions that prevent some outlandish things from being published. in the case of Near vs. Minnesota, Near wanted to publish an article on a public official but was stopped by the state. this act of stopping violated the 1st amendment which is unconstitutional therefore Near was wronged and won his case. on the other hand students do not have the same rights when school is in session. in the case of Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier, a school Principal withheld the publication of a school newspaper article that they felt was inappropriate. the court ruled in favor of the principal because schools are not required to promote student speech through school funding.
Freedom of speech is also a very controversial right in that there is so much that can be said that is not protected in everyday life. in the case of Johnson vs. Texas, Johnson was charged with burning the flag in Texas. the courts were forced to rule in favor of Johnson because flag burning is a form of free speech even though it violates the unenforced flag code.
Due process may be one of our most important rights for those of us who tend to seek a more adventurous lifestyle. our Miranda rights come from the case of Miranda vs. Arizona. Miranda gave oral admissions without being notified of his right to counsel and was unlawfully held for 5 days. the court ruled in favor of Miranda in that the prosecutors could not use these statements against him in court. as far as school sanctioned rights to due process, students have similar rights. in the case of Goss vs. Lopez a student received a 10 day suspension from school without a preliminary hearing although the law did not require it. the ruling ended in favor of the defendant that the suspension violated the Ohio's right to an education and that students should be given notice of their punishment and have the opportunity to have a hearing prior to their punishment.
so as seen above many of our freedoms are proven to be controversial but effective in our society. it seems that with freedom of speech and freedom of the press that anything that does not inflict harm among any person or group of people, it is ok to be as expressive as possible within our governments limitations. the right to due process again is of top importance within our society as we can be arrested for just about anything today.
Scott Speer

Test Post

This is my test post