Well now that Arman has calmed down I think I can go ahead with my blog here. At my university elections are currently under way for student government, and I have to say it is quite a mess. Two candidates for president, one is for a fresh start, the other supported by the incumbents aka the establishment and both are people I know. So I suppose it is inevitable that if you show support for one person you're going to piss off the other guy and it is unfortunate that it turned out this way for our situation.
To top it off the candidate that I chose not to support is Armenian, so apparently I crossed the line here. Most of the Armenians on campus.... all of the Armenians on campus are voting for the Armenian candidate, why? Because he is Armenian of course! What better reason is there? I'm all for Armenian solidarity here, but there is a line. So what if the candidate you vote for does not do anything for the Armenian cause and just seems to pursue his goals, is it still right to vote for him since he is Armenian, or since you know the guy?
Don't get me wrong here, I support Armenian political candidates. Here in LA there's an Armenian candidate for State Assembly, Paul Krekorian. This guy does a lot for the community and is quite qualified to be a State Assemblyman. Be sure to visit his website:
http://www.paulkrekorian.com/
So I treat this as a case by case scenario, and in the case of my school's elections, I'm sad to see a lot of Armenians voting for a candidate that probably won't do much in return for the cause or isn't even that great of a candidate to begin with.
8 comments:
Learn from the Jews, vote for the Armenian, but make sure you let the Armenian know who is voting for him, and that he needs to step it up. I mean unless the Armenian is a total jack ass who will make a total mockery out of the rest of us, then your good. Support Armenian!
And I am glad you brought out the Paul Krekorian example. Paul could of had the seat already in the last election, but what happened was that Armenians split their vote. If Armenians had backed him up originally, he would of already been up there, and might be going for a higher position now.
Now in this election it's going to get dirty, with Quintero wanting to get the Latino vote, and the Armenian vote, because he has "worked" for Armenians. And, yes there will be some sorry to say, but "dumb" Armenians who will vote for Quintero, because they don't understand the concept of politics. And do you think Latino's will vote for Krekorian, doubt it, their eye is on that seat. Dario Frommer, the one whose seat their running for has made it clear he wants a Hispanic to replace him, and they are going to pull all the dirty tricks to not let an Armenian get it, so Levon you need to understand that when it comes to politics, you back your people, because the other guy however "good" and "friendly" he is to your causes, he is not one of you, and can never be in your shoes. In politics, morality, whose good, whose bad doesn't play, it's all about whose team you are in.
Another example, Mayor Villaraigosa is a good Mayor. He likes Armenians, and has always been on our team. He was elected by the help of Armenians. His campaign manager was Armenian, and he has many Armenians on his staff, and team, so yes he will back Armenians, because he knows he needs to, but there is always a line. At the end of the day though, if a situation arises where he needs to pick between one of his own, and an Armenian, or when he needs to put his ass on the line for an Armenian, do you think he will? No. Because he is not Armenian, he is just a politician, who will kiss our ass when he needs to. But an Armenian would put his ass on the line for an Armenian issue, because he knows he wouldn't be able to get away from it.
Anonymous, you're mixing apples and oranges here, school politics and state politics are different and require two different approaches, remember I said I treat this as a case by case basis.
It's not just about the cause, it's about being a good candidate overall. This Armenian candidate, totally plays dirty (our school elections). Has the opposing candidate's flyers taken down, goes through the student government (who is backing him) to have the other guy be suspended, total bs, and I'm going to vote for him just b/c he is Armenian?
Regarding Paul Krekorian v. Quintero, that's bigger politics, I'm talking about a school election here and people playing dirty in a damn school election. Armenians won't step it up on him because they don't care and even if they do he won't do anything since he is already in office.
Anonymous I LOVE how you start your post, I like you already. Bringing the example of Jews is what I would have done too. But the thing is that Jews are mostly very dedicated to what they do, while Armenians, I am sorry to say, are not.
I totally and 100% understand where you are coming from, and when I did vote for Student government in Glendal Community College, I went over the list and looked for Armenian last names to vote for. But I can also see what Levon is saying. I mean to tell you the truth, as much as I like real politics, I COULD NOT GIVE A FLYING F#@& about the school politics. And Levon knows this. The reason behind this is that no matter who is the prresident THEY ARE STILL very university dependent. They pretty much have to operate in a very controlled environment, while in real politcs its the politicans who decide how the environment should be. Yes the student government is important and they can make changes but in my years in school student body did not do anything significant. Yes they bitched and moaned when the TUITIONS, PARKING FEES, AND BOOK PRICES WENT UP, but they did not accomplish a single thing. Thats why I dont really care.
Now I dont know the candidates well enough, I know the Armenian guy from ASA meetings but thats it. Now Levon describes him as a demon spawn backstabbing selfish worm (a little exageration), and I beleive Levon is at least partialy right. But I dont know about the other guy either. He did help the California Students Association accept the Armenian Genocide, but I dont know under which circumstances that happened (as anonymous pointed out they will kiss our ass when they need us). So I finaly decided that I am not voting period.
And Levon it is true that school and real politics are somehow different, I mean they are not as cutthroat, but the idea is the same. Arno might not deserve our vote, but are you sure the other guy is?
So I think you both guys are right, but I beleive that an Armenian should not receive our vote if he is super duper selfish and does not care about anything else but himself, OR if he/she JUST happens to have an Armenian last name and it does not mean much to him/her since she will vote the same way on Armenian critical issues as any other non Armenian candidate.
Gotta clerify one more thing from my last post. I meant to say THAT TOO MANY ARMENIANS ARE NOT ALWAYS DEDICATED to THE ARMENIAN CAUSE
First of all, I have to say, wow, Arman you've been liking a lot of what I have to say lately. I was told you like to argue, so I don't know what to say, haha!
But, anyways, Levon as I mentioned in my first paragraph. Well, no, if the Armenian guy is an idiot then it would be common sense not to vote for him. It wouldn't help anyone.
Arman the Armenian candidate DID NOT help the CSSA Accept the Armenian Genocide!!! An odar did that! That's why I have been saying this guy won't do anything for Armenians, he's just using them as tools!!!
Anyways, you guys are seriously blowing this issue up in regards to Armenians. It's a school election! You can't compare it with politics in the real world! In addition, you guys have no idea of what's going on in this election, so all I can do is take your words with a grain of salt, a pretty big grain too...
Btw, the Armenian candidate won, let's end this discussion.
Levon I dont know if you are getting old or just loosing it but I never said "Arman the Armenian candidate DID NOT help the CSSA Accept the Armenian Genocide!!! " I said the opposite. Read it over.
Anonymous man(girl?) jan, you can tell when and why argue if you read over the past posts. I like to discuss more than argue.
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