Why We Vote
The Register Star has brought together a group of people from all over the Rock River Valley to serve on our Election 2008 Voters’ Panel. These men and women are Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Green party members. Some are high school students. Some are retired. And some fall in between those two age groups. They all share this: The upcoming election is important and voters do have voices. They’ll share them in this blog.

Archive for September 9th, 2008

Choices, Choices

3 comments September 9th, 2008

Well, the candidates are all now chosen and it’s time to actually THINK about who to vote for this November. Each side approaches the issues differently; in some cases they are far apart, and in others, not so far. It begs the question: how DOES one sort through all the chatter to come to a decision on who to vote for?

Should one vote for a candidate simply because of the party? While some would say yes, that doesn’t seem to me to be the way to go. That smacks of paternalism, with the party saying they know what is best for me and to just vote our way and shut up.

What about “experience”? True, time spent in the Senate does contribute to one’s knowledge and will influence how one approaches a situation, but does anyone every really have the experience to be Commander in Chief? In looking back at the last few presidents, all learned on the job, for the most part.

Are hot button issues dealbreakers, or are they outweighed by other considerations? Consider guns – the Republicans don’t want any more gun laws and say they support gun owners right to bear arms, but as Obama asked at the convention, isn’t there a common ground to protect hunters’ rights but still keep AK-47s and assault rifles off the streets? Makes sense to me. Or consider abortion – the Democrats want to keep it legal and safe, but would like to find ways make it the option of last resort and therefore rare. The Republicans, on the other hand, are staunchly opposed to giving women a choice in the matter (there’s that paternalism again), saying they want to overturn Roe v. Wade. While they don’t want to let you decide whether to have the child or not, they do want to let you decide where to send the child to school if you have an underperforming school. Strange logic. Should one of those issues, or any other one issue, be the deciding factor in one’s vote? Or can you “hold your nose” and vote for a candidate if you mostly agree on other things?

Someone once said that gridlock is good and when we have one party in the Presidency and a different party in Congress, they have to work together to get anything done. Is that a reason to choose one candidate over another?

We’ve got a lot of things to think about in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to the debates to help me decide who to vote for. It should be an interesting time.