Reflections

This class definitely opened my eyes to politics. To be honest, at the start of this semester I barely knew the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Even worse, I barely cared. Now, thanks to this class and the conveniently timed election, I am actively following politics on a national and global scale. I'm excited for the changes Obama may bring to this country, but more importantly I'm aware of what he's doing to enact those changes. Our political system was a mystery to me before this class. Of course I knew about congress, and the president, and the three branches of government, and bills and laws, and all that stuff. But, I never had the desire or the means to fill in the gaps and connect it all together. Now it all makes sense, and things aren't nearly as mysterious. The news headlines mean more to me now, and I think it's largely due to this class.

As far as skills that I can take with me... this class has definitely taught me to question the media and common opinion. For instance, I think much better of Bush now than I did at the start of the semester because now I know that he can't be entirely blamed for our current economic state. I know that the media blames the president for anything that goes wrong, and I can now see how it affected me and everyone else. So, this class has given me that ability to look past the opinions in the news and make my own decisions.



(Sorry, but that's the best political cartoon I could find at the moment...)