{"id":188,"date":"2016-10-10T14:46:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T14:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=188"},"modified":"2016-10-10T14:46:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T14:46:28","slug":"citizens-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2016\/10\/10\/citizens-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens’ duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Travis Hall ’19, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Wars have been fought and lives lost to preserve democracy and free elections in the United States, yet millions of Americans voluntarily give up the right of self-determination each year by choosing to bypass the voting booth.<\/p>\n

With perhaps the most important presidential election approaching, a large portion of the population is refusing to voice their opinion in the voting booth. \u00a0Many use their lack of knowledge about presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as a crutch for avoiding the polls. \u00a0Associate Professor of Politics Dr. Diane Johnson has thoughts on why it\u2019s vital for those voters to do research and make their mark on the ballot this November.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens in a democracy have a certain ethic responsibility to be well-informed,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cTo make those kinds of important decisions about who\u2019s going to be deciding policies, who\u2019s going to be deciding how our money is spent, who\u2019s going to be deciding whether we go to war, whether we\u2019re going to have health care\u2014these are really important decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason for low voter turnout, especially in this election, is the sizeable number of citizens who can\u2019t bring themselves to vote because they bemoan both Trump and Clinton. \u00a0But what Johnson urges people to understand is that there is much more to voting than just picking between those two.<\/p>\n

A critical part of the voting process has nothing to do with the big names at the top. \u00a0There are many local elections that will be on the ballot in November\u2014specifically state senate and house members\u2014that will likely have a more noticeable impact on the common voter than the presidential election will. \u00a0Plus, those who steadfastly refuse to vote for the President have the ability to opt out and only participate in the other elections.<\/p>\n

However, Hannah Sorenson, a politics major and leader in resurrecting the Young Republicans Club at Lebanon Valley College, and Alexander Smith, leader of the College Democrats, expressed their opinions as to why voting for the President is an important part of making a difference in the future of the democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhichever person, Trump or Clinton, gets elected, they\u2019re going to pick the next Supreme Court Justice, and that\u2019s my biggest reason why I think people should vote,\u201d Sorenson said.<\/p>\n

Placing the next Supreme Court Justice will be one of the first items on the agenda for the new President because, as it stands, there are four Republican Justices and four Democratic Justices. \u00a0Supreme Court Justices are seldom identified by political party; however, generally they are considered conservative, moderate or liberal. It is such a hot topic in the 2016 election because whichever party leader gets put into office will determine which party has the majority in the Supreme Court: a decision that will have implications for decades to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoting is how people express their views and opinions to the government,\u201d Smith said. \u00a0\u201cYou are not supporting your opinion by not voting, you are silencing yourself. The next President is the one to appoint new judges, so this election will decide the political swing of the courts for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 presidential election will have a monumental effect on the direction of the United States for the next four or eight years. \u00a0Whether one is voting red or blue, an LVC student can be part of that decision process.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Travis Hall ’19, Staff Writer Wars have been fought and lives lost to preserve democracy and free elections in the United States, yet millions of Americans voluntarily give up the right of self-determination each […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}