To Republican Candidates...

To all of the Republican Candidates for the Presidential Nomination, I have one question for you. Who do you think you are?
From Lindsey Graham saying we need to send troops to Iraq, to Mike Huckabee saying the public has no interest in Transgender rights, you all are fairly misguided.
To say what the public wants, when the public in fact doesn't want it, like more war in Iraq, or more restrictive voting requirements, not only makes you look bad in the eyes of the people who do oppose your views, but also makes you look arogant. When people care about a policy, they do care what you say about it. Huckabee, by saying people don't care about the rights of transgender people, you're saying to young people don't have a view. A majority of young people believe strongly in equal rights for LGBT people. To recommend privatizing student loans, and cutting educational funding, you're alienating the people who rely heavily on these things, young people. By passing tighter voting requirements, you're alienating young people and minorities, the people most affected by these restrictions.
Overall, you're pushing away the demographics your party needs the most and you're doing it without batting an eye. Romney and McCain were beaten by Obama largely thanks to his high percentages from minorities and young people. Yet you still haven't learned your lesson? I hope you realize how much you're shooting yourself in the foot when you promote policy that people don't like. 

An Open Letter to Rand Paul.

Rand Paul, the young Paul. The poster boy of libertarianism. He is so libertarian, his name even resembles that of the famous libertarian writer, Ayn Rand. His isolationist policy calling for reduced defense spending, and domestic spying is far from what most other candidates are calling for, and I like it. I really do. I stand with Rand. My only issues with Rand is he doesn't like the liberal policies I hold close to my heart. Education, abortion, health care. If only Rand could somehow move a little left on these, he would have my vote, and I'd imagine many other young peoples votes.
Oh Rand. How I want to like you. Even your own party is demonizing you, and that's a good thing. Though the Republicans have the majority in Congress, this does not mean they have the majority of the country. Especially now, when Republicans are putting their feet in their mouths, and the public is not viewing them too favorably. I hope the best for Rand, and I hope to see him at least knock a few of the hawkish Republicans down a peg.

Voter Suppression

One of the least committed offenses in this country is the act of voter fraud. There has only been approximately 3 cases of voter fraud in the history of this nation. Yet recently, there has been a large push largely from Republican officials, to push for stricter voting requirements. These restriction range from cutting early voting time, to requiring photo IDs, something innocuous yet it still impacts a large portion of inner city voters. There has also been laws that make college students use their parents address as their address, by stating college boarding is temporary housing and does not count as your home address when it comes to voting. This ever more complicated a process that many college students feel rather apathetic towards in the first place.
The real problem is that the officials pushing for these restrictions have no real intention of stopping voter fraud, no one does it and who really wants to? What their concerns are, are the younger, or poorer, or even the minority populations. These laws disproportionately impact these marginalized populations, and can easily be seen as an attempt to suppress these people from voting.
If the real concern is voter fraud then the concern is deeply misplaced. The fear stirred up over the "new black panther movement", and how undocumented aliens are using other people's social security numbers to vote, is all a rouse. To believe this is in my opinion, being truly ignorant of reality.