Elections Of 1912 And 2000 Essay Research

Paper

Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft in nineteen-twelve were counterparts to Al Gore and George W. Bush in two thousand. There were others running for presidency as well, just as there are today, but for the purpose of this paper, we shall compare and contrast only these four.

First, let us look at the issues of nineteen-twelve in comparison to the issues of today before we get to the actual presidential nominees. Prohibition was a big issue in nineteen-twelve life, and continued to be long after. Other issues then included the trusts and regulations of businesses, votes for women, conservation of natural resources, the tariff, and direct democracy. Today we have the issues of health care, social security, abortion, and gun rights. There are more, but these four cause the most heated debates. When you look at the difference in issues of today, and issues of then, they vary greatly. Or perhaps not: votes for women could be teamed up with the gun issue as general rights. Now, woman having the vote is expected and encouraged as much as with me, then people having guns was a matter not questioned. Direct democracy is not talked of much outside of classrooms now, and then social security was unheard of. With different issues came different styles of debating.

We have civil debates now. If you with to call them that. There are rules and we try to keep things so that they are not so moral degrading. We only insinuate that another candidate is stupid, rather than coming out and yelling it. Security is tighter than it was, and candidates are even more finicky. Now, too, we are able to get information on our candidates almost instantly. There are telephones and much more current newspapers. News broadcasts and the internet give us information with the push of a few buttons. This all in comparison to the slow communication of nineteen-twelve. Thus we are now able to easily did up dirty laundry on a candidate and air it out for all to see. Candidates of today are fond of this. Rather, their campaigning parties are.

On to the actual comparison of the candidates themselves. Al Gore and Woodrow Wilson share much in common. Neither is all that exciting, but both had or have the characteristic of being reliably predictable. Which can be a plus. Both had or have political experience, though Gore certianly has more than Wilson did. I believe that, is Al Gore to get elected, his presidency will be both more and less exciting than Wilson s was. Unless we have World War III. World War III will definitely be more exciting than World War II. Our technology has taken many great leaps since then.

As entertaining as discussing and thinking on the subject on World War III, George W. Bush and William Howard Taft are needing to be compared. Bush and Taft have less in common than Gore and Wilson. For starters, Taft had more experience. The two candidates had different views on how the government was to be run, and how to handle the nation s money, but both were and are older than their opposites. Other than that, Bush and Taft did and do not have all that much in common.

In conclusion, Gore and Wilson had and have more in common than Bush and Taft. The election of two-thousand will be just as close, if not closer, than the election of nineteen-twelve. Only time will tell if the candidates follow their counterparts. With the exception that Roosevelt is not here to split the Republican vote.