In the divisive, caustic political climate in which we
live, you may find yourself saying, “How could they possibly vote for ____?” We
all do this, and we mean it! We cannot see how anyone could vote for someone
other than the one we have chosen. We have convinced ourselves that it is a
simple decision, but it really isn’t. It’s complex and it involves several
factors. I have identified a few of them that I’d like you to think about
before you decide that your friends are just plain crazy if they don’t agree
with you.
First of all, before we even know who’s running for
office, most of us consider ourselves a part of one political party. Even if we aren’t loyal to one party in every
election, we assume that we’ll vote for a certain party candidate. Some people
find it very difficult to vote for a candidate that isn’t in their party. Since
my dad changed parties when I was in high school, I learned as a teenager to
look at more than just party loyalty. I generally begin by listening to all
candidates to see how their views of governing at the local, state, or federal
level line up with mine. Since I know many of the candidates at the local
level, my decisions don’t usually have much to do with party affiliation. At
the state and federal levels, I always look at party affiliation, but I look at
other factors before making a decision because I believe that we all want many
of the same things. We just disagree on how to achieve them.
Second, we tend to choose candidates whose personalities are attractive to us. But
that isn’t the same for all of us. Just as we choose friends based on their
personalities, we may like or dislike a political candidate because he/she
exhibits certain characteristics. For example, I generally like positive
people, people who seem to be optimistic about the future. Negative,
complaining people are a turnoff to me even if I agree with them on some issues.
Third, most of us think of the character of the candidate. Because most politicians have character
flaws, we tend to pick and choose the flaws that are “deal breakers” for us.
This is a major problem in this election, because the candidates do so much
name calling and accusing one another without citing any specifics. If what is
said about a candidate concerns me, I do a lot of fact checking to see if it
seems to be a real fact or just a twisted bit of information to suit the
opponent. One day, just as an experiment, I took two accusations about each of
the presidential candidates and did some fact checking. I learned that of the
four accusations, none of them were actually true. They were perversions of
something they had done, but not really reliable accusations. I also try to
look at the individual’s record over the long haul. Is it a pattern of behavior
supported by several incidents? Does it in any way align with what I’ve heard
the candidate say?
The fourth factor is personal impact. In a general way, we all believe that the results
of a presidential election will impact our lives, but if we believe it will
impact us in a specific way, this factor may override all the others. Even if
what a candidate will do will help most of the people in the country, if it
impacts us negatively, we may vote against that candidate. I think we should
strive to look at the big picture in national elections, but that’s often
difficult to do.
Finally, there are the issues. We all have issues that are important to us--education,
defense, immigration, healthcare, equal rights, etc. I want to say a word about money here. Often
our political discussions revolve around how the government spends money or how
much our taxes will be. Money seems to be our god. Our decisions should never
be all about money though. They should include things like how a candidate
seems to value people and treat people. Part of that will of course include how
money is spent, but a candidate’s compassion for others and his/her concern for
the welfare of all people should be at the core of decisions about governing.
Ideally, we should be able to say that our candidate
aligns with our political views, has a personality we like, is of good
character, makes decisions that impact us in a positive way, and agrees with us
all the issues. This is usually not the case. As we look at our choices and our
friend’s choices, let us realize that our perspectives are different from theirs
and give them the freedom to choose without our judgment.
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