Why We Vote
The Register Star has brought together a group of people from all over the Rock River Valley to serve on our Election 2008 Voters’ Panel. These men and women are Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Green party members. Some are high school students. Some are retired. And some fall in between those two age groups. They all share this: The upcoming election is important and voters do have voices. They’ll share them in this blog.

Archive for November 5th, 2008

The results are in…

1 comment November 5th, 2008

I voted in my first presidential election today for Barack Obama and watched the election coverage excitedly in my friend’s dorm room.

I go to college in Missouri, a bellwether state, and registered to vote here, as well, considering President-Elect Obama needed my vote here more than Illinois would have.  After the initial announcement of Obama’s presidency, shouts of all reactions came from the hallways and from outside: excitement, joy, disappointment, frustration.

Many media outlets often portray college students as liberal hippies, similar to the “College Know-It-All Hippies” of South Park.  This isn’t the case, however, especially not in Missouri. Many of my peers are staunch conservatives and truly dislike Barack Obama, not only as a candidate, but as a person.  They like “their guns and religion.”  These conservative peers fear a socialist nation, possibly even the next USSR.  Thankfully I know our Constitution would not allow for such an attrocity.

I am eager to witness the coming events of the next four years.   I am highly pro-guns — definitely in favor of the concealed weapon law that was on the ballot for Winnebago Co. — and am not too keen on universal healthcare.  That did not stop me, however, for standing behind the rest of the ideals behind which Obama stood, too.