When you vote, you are carrying out
your civic duty to bring about positive change to your life and your
country. However, we must remember that
your vote, everyone’s vote carries with it the weight of an entire nation. The moment you cast your ballot, you hope
that the person you are voting for is the right one. Then what happens next is up to fate. It is your vote, everyone’s vote that can
bring about success or failure to this country.
With this in mind, you the voter not only have to go out and vote, but
know who and what you’re voting for. It
is our commitment as citizens to know who the person we are voting for, their
motivations, upbringing, associations, and most of all what they stand for and
their ability to accomplish their goals while in office. The very same goals you are voting for them
to achieve.
Question them: At all times we voters must look at
politics and the politicians and scrutinize them. If a program does not work, or a politician
is ineffective, then upon the next election you vote for change. These elected officials know you’re watching
as you are their source of power.
Without your support, they can do nothing to exact change. But, is it
the change you voted them in for.
Politicians gear their campaigns to make themselves look good around
election season. The political parties
and their organizations act as the funding arm for their chosen political
leaders and act as umbrellas to the true nature of the politicians seeking
election. In other words, just because
they may have the label of Republican or Democrat does not mean they actually
follow the same ideology espoused by the party itself. But, in most cases, these politicians cannot
stray from the party line out of fear of losing support from the party. Therefore it is very hard to say what that
politician will do in office. Thus it is
our commitment to find out who and what the candidates stand for. So we must look into their background which
includes their past commitments, religious motivations, ideology, prejudices,
work and political experience, success rate in business and politics, their
friends and other relationships and anything else that shapes the person into
who they are. With this background
information we can begin to make a chart for ourselves on the best and worst
qualities of a candidate. Then you do
the same for the candidate running against them. From here it is a simple decision, pick the
lesser of two evils or abstain from voting.
I personally vote for the lesser of to evils because it sends a message
to the party leaders that we voters want more candidates with particular
qualities. A better way of saying it is
that if you want a more conservative candidate in the future, vote only for
them. If you want more liberal
candidates, vote for more liberals. If
you want a blend of ideologies, such as small government, fiscally
conservative, but are pro union and pro stimulus, then you vote for candidates
with those qualities. You can’t do that though if you don’t look and find out
who the candidates are and what they stand for.
The background information on candidates guides you to figuring out who
they are despite the party rhetoric and how capable they are going into
office. It’s tough though. We voters have to take the time out of our
work schedules and family life just to try and scour through the information
and even then that might not be enough.
Who are they?: It does get easier to find out about
the candidates. All you have to do is
take one to two hours to watch/read the news, or go to the various home pages
of those for and against the candidates.
Generally that is more than enough to know who you’re voting for, but
you must start as soon as campaign season starts. The reason is that some important information
on the candidates may be presented, but because it has been addressed earlier
on, it may become a non-issue later in the campaign. However, that does not make it a non-issue
for you. So you must make a commitment
to pay attention to all the details before they disappear. Most of all though is you cannot stop looking
into the candidates until the day of the election. Yes it can be hard, but that is why it is a
commitment.
It's not just about people: You have the same commitment when it
comes to voting in a referendum. A
referendum is when the populace is allowed to vote on a government action or
law. Basically, we are allowed a form of direct democracy and we thus vote to pass a law, not our representatives. In this case, we the voters are looking at how the law or action affects
us and those we care about. We must look
at both the positive and negative affects the law or action will bring
about. Some of these affects are not
straight forward so we voters must analyze any possibility for a negative to
occur and is it worth the trade off to pass such legislation. Also, we voters must avoid being
selfish. We cannot vote simply because
one particular group will be affected, such as the rich or businesses. Nor can we afford to vote based on skin
color, religion, or ideology alone. To
vote that way is to skirt your commitment as a voter and you fail your nation
by degrading the integrity of the vote in this manner. Not to mention, voting in any way based on
skin color is racist, and voting based on gender or sex is sexist. Thus, if you do consider such things in making
your decision, I kindly ask you not to vote because you are ruining the voting
process by voting on something that is irrelevant to who the candidates are as
people. Discrimination based on
non-factors like race, ethnicity, sex, gender and even age should not affect
your decision to vote. Vote on
capability, and who the person is on the inside where it truly counts.
Conclusion: We voters have a commitment to vote
for the individual. As voters, we must
commit ourselves to find out who the candidates are as individuals so as to
make an informed vote. Superficial
things like race and sex should not enter our minds when voting for the best
candidate. It takes time, effort and sacrifice
to exercise our privilege to vote, a privilege denied to people in some
countries. It is our commitment to the success of the nation to be informed
voters. If a person should tell you
otherwise, tell them that no matter what, every vote counts.
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