Hello all,

I'm a 23 year old just starting out in the world. With the election coming up soon, I've been trying to figure out my stances on a lot of issues as well as just learn what this is all about. I want to seize my constitutional right to vote, but I want to be completely informed and confident in my candidate when that time comes. I was raised a republican and have remained one out of sheer ignorance. During my minute research thus far, I've been heading more left. I would appreciate any assistance anyone could give on where would be the best place to gain a base knowledge of the hot topics in today's debates.

'preciate it.

You have found it. I do not know of a better place to get a variety of perspectives on issues than here. Debaters do give links to relevant data. Opinions here are for the most part independent. This is an excellent place to build your knowledge base.

For one thing, do not think of issues as being on different ends of a piece of string. A better debate is to think of ideas as being on a plain. This test is an example of how to view the political spectrum.

Some would argue that's why anyone remains a Republican. But Gray Seal is right - this is a very good place to come across a pretty wide variety of opinions. And, unlike a lot of partisan sites, people here defend their opinions, so there's often a fair bit of foundation for any given argument - which gives you links to additional sources and so on. So just following the discussions here is a good way of keeping abreast of most issues that surface. Of course you can always check out our Resource section for additional online information in a lot of areas.