Mission Statement

Welcome to the new blog The Truth for Youth. In this blog I will attempt to give my views on politics, politicians, and news stories from the US and around the globe. About me, I am a high school senior with a wide variety of political views. For example, while I have an extremely conservative standpoint on the issues of abortion and capital punishment, I have extremely liberal views on homosexuality and immigrant rights. I suppose this makes me a centrist, so I try to be unbiased towards candidates in regards to their political party. George Washington himself said "They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community;..." Basically, he was opposed to political parties and while I am not quite so adamantly against the two-party system I can understand how Washington's words are still very true today when speaking about the public sector.

In terms of qualifications of informing people, I really do not have many. I am in Advanced Placement English, which (hopefully) translates to me having above average writing skills. I am in Advanced Placement US Government, which hopefully translates to an increasingly strong understanding of our governmental system, although I will be the first to admit the phase "you learn something new every day" is most poignant for me in my AP Government class. Finally, I am in Advanced Placement United States History, which gives me a strong understanding of precedents set by history and an improved perception regarding the phrase "history repeats itself." All of these "qualifications" serve me in writing this blog and by extension will hopefully help you to better understand the upcoming 2008 elections.

In terms of party identification, I will never speak in favor of either the Democratic or Republican party. While I certainly have liberal leanings (thanks to my wonderful youthful idealism and vitality) I believe the Democratic party often becomes as much as a servant to special interests as the Republican party does.

In terms of media influence, (something very important in determining one's left versus right stance) I watch CNN most often and will most likely refer to their website (http://www.cnn.com/) the most when referring to polls, news stories, and the like. I also listen to the NBC Nightly News broadcast quite frequently. As a result, Tom Brokaw and Anderson Cooper are the two journalists I idealize most. I enjoy the tongue-in-cheek comedy news broadcasts The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I am very, very, very opposed to Fox News in all of its incarnations. The Fox News channel is by far the worst of all news stations in terms of having an "agenda" and pushing it through their interviews and non-contextual usage of sound bites. As a piece of advice from a modest blog writer, never go to the Fox News Network for any piece of news, unless you are looking for something or someone to satirize. For newspaper information, I get the Detroit Free Press delivered to my home and I also like to read USA Today as much as possible. My chief source on the internet is Wikipedia, although if that particular source is used, the identification and verification of sources will be used thoroughly.

In terms of personal life, I am a Catholic, I enjoy college football, and I love a good match of tennis. That's about all the additional information you would ever need to know.

Alright, well, now that my "credentials" have been laid bare, I present to you the Truth for Youth Political Blog Mission Statement:

By posting in this blog, I (and any co-authors) will attempt to succinctly and honestly portray the political atmosphere of the United States, along with provide easy-to-understand commentary on candidates and news events around the world. In doing so, the authors understand that truth in the political world is almost certainly subjective, so the writers will attempt to make both sides of any given story their due credit and honesty. This blog is intended for not only youth but any (fellow) novices in the political arena hoping to better understand the political climate we live in today. The writers of this blog will take full responsibility for any misinformation or unintended political bias and will work to the fullest extent of their ability to preserve the truthfulness of their arguments and essays. We would finally like to thank you, the reader, for directing your attention to this blog and giving us the light of day. We have these great ideas and opinions, but none of this would be possible without eyes to read it and a mind to understand it.


In closing for this post, I would like to recommend that the reader utilize http://www.m-w.com/ because the diction can get pretty out of hand, as you might have already had trouble understanding some of the jargon used in this post. If you have any questions, you can reach the team at thetruthforyouth@gmail.com. Thank you for reading.