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About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2008)
4 October Special Forum g§j» America's political system needs change J ennifer S itton Staff Reporter The Republican and Democratic parties need to be abolished. America has had a two party system since the 1830's, when candidates discovered that to capture the electoral vote, they would need to have a unified platform that agreed with a majority of voters. Every American president since 1856 has been either a Republican or a Democrat, and though there will be a total of thirteen presidential nominees on the ballot come Nov. 4, none of them have a fair chance of winning. The two party system should be abolished completely. Instead of voting by party, Americans should vote for the candidate whom they feel shares their viewpoints and feels that they can lead our country in the best way possible. ★ ★ ★★ Many argue that the two party system makes it easier for voters to choose a candidate they trust, and that by having two, long- developed parties running for president, it provides a sort of stability for America. It has also been said that two candidates who stand for the same issue will theoretically receive the same amount of votes. Therefore, the candidate who opposes that issue will receive the rest of the votes. In turn, the voters who are for that issue will have their votes split between two candidates. This causes the majority of the votes to go toward the opponent who opposes that issue. Another potential advantage to the two party system is that by having two candidates who are both reaching out to the majority of voters, they will most likely overlap in some of their opinions, which may in turn contribute to To the editor: Election brings out political opinions "Wright" connection is wrong To the editors, Senator Barack Obama is not qualified to be president because of the controversy surrounding his past and p resen t re la tio n sh ip w ith the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a reverend at the Trinity United Church in Chicago. Videotapes of his sermons revealed him making anti-American statements, as well as in statements made in an interview with Sean Hannity on March 1, 2007. Wright asks, "Do you know Black Liberation Theology?" and "How many of Cones' books have you read?" These words are very scary whether you realize it or not. Black Liberation Theology is spin-off religion of Liberation Theology, supported and led by Marxist agitators and directed to the black community centering on racial and economic conflict. Wright says he believes in Black Liberation Theology and praises the works and philosophy of James Cone. Cone is BLT's most highly praised "scholar" and founder. In his book Black Theology and Black Power, he asserts, "If God is not for us and against white people, then He is a murderer, and we had better kill Him." This is the man and the ideas that Wright admires and lives by. Obama attended Rev. Wright's church for 20 years and claims that he ■ has never heard Wright make statements like these. If this is true, it means that Obama has attended Wright's sermons 1,040 times, assuming he went every Sunday, and never heard them. When analyzed thoroughly, the beliefs of BLT highlight what Obama's political philosophy is. I do not necessarily think that Senator McCain is the best choice for president but Ido believe that Obama is the worst choice and would make this country weaker in every way. Carlos Splitstoser junior Presidential article prompts rebuttal To the editors, I was disappointed how all talk about the Presidential election was all slanted to the political left. Any talk about Obama was about how good he was and any talk about McCain was how evil he was. In the article that was written by Adam Holmes, he completely missed the point of the McCain commercial that compared the experience of Palin and Obama. It was saying that the Democrat presidential candidate had as much experience as the Republican vice- presidential candidate. He also failed to point out all the flak that Palin has taken for her family life, or the fire McCain has come under for not totally releasing his health records. Vice-Presidential candidates do not need as much experience as Presidential candidates. Even then, Palin still has more experience running an area than Obama. Palin was a governor, Obama was a senator. A governor is like a president of a state. Who is more qualified to run a country? His article was hypocritical, claiming that we need to stop making low-blows when this article is one huge low-blow to McCain/Palin. The only other problem I had was that the issue of abortion was called "Women's Rights." That is a very biased name for it and it isn't even the issue at all. Any sort of complaint about women's rights now is used to refer things like differences in pay between men and women, not abortion. If you want to play that game, I will start calling the issue "Mass- Murder of Babies," then claim that Obama is for it, while McCain is against it. Hans Farnbach senior Opinions expressed in commentaries and editorials represent only those of the writer, and are not necessarily the opinions of West Linn High School, its administration, faculty, staff, or student body. All readers are invited to send their letters to the Amplifier at wlhs-amplifier@wlwv. kl2.or.us. Limit letter to 250 words. All submissions become property o f the Amplifier and will not be returned; submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise used in any medium. stability in the American government. The cons of the two party system greatly outweigh the pros. By having two major parties constantly being elected, it gives voters no chance to vote for anyone outside of those parties because they know that those candidates won't win and they don't want to waste their precious vote. Another setback is that candidates don't really have the opportunity to have individual opinions, because to be elected, they have to take on the opinions of the group of people whom they are trying to represent. For instance, a Republican candidate couldn't say they were pro- choice, because they would lose all of the conservative Republican voters who are against abortion. Another problem with the system is that many voters agree with both parties on some issues, some voters even agree with candidates from independent parties. So, in turn, voters aren't truly voting for the candidate they most agree with, they are voting for the party they most agree with. Our country is in an economic crisis right now, making this J election crucial for W the future of America. Let's stop worrying about whether or not we're voting into office a right-wing Republican, a left-wing Democrat or Independent Party candidate Ralph Nader, and vote somebody in who will save our country from this downward spiral. Whoever our next president is, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, lets help to remove that little R or D next to their name on the bottom of the television screen and simply support them as the 44th President of the United States of America. Survey asks: Which class is hardest? In a survey conducted asking students which class they thought was the hardest, 166 responses were received. A breakdown of the classes with the highest response is listed below. Teachers were also asked which class they thought was the hardest to teach, and no two answers were the same. Of the six responses received, they thought Fiber Arts, Physics, Discrete Math and French 4 or 5 were the most difficult. Sue Raivio, English teacher, believes that classes shouldn't be compared to each other. "None of them are hard; they're just all different which keeps it fun," Raivio said. Classes with highest response: Biology 5 Spanish IV 33 English 5 US History 22 Advanced Algebra AP US History 4 13 AP Psychology 4 Chemistry 11 Honors Law A 3 Pre-Calc 8 Organic Biochemistry 3 AP Chemistry 2 8 Geometry 7 6 World History AP European History AP Physics Honors Humanities 2 1 Music -1% World Social Studies 4% Tech/ Math 16% Science - 36%
