Choices, Choices
September 9th, 2008 at 05:20pm Gary Tiffany
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.
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3 Comments Add your own
1. DaForce | September 9th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
You ask the question, how DOES one sort through all the chatter to come to a decision on who to vote for?
By far the best way would be able to look at each candidate and platform presented in a complete and accurate manner. We can’t do that. Normally we would depend on the national news and local media for that information. But, things today are not normal.
In todays climate, the media is nothing more than a bunch of talking heads expressing their own personal opinions and presenting only the information that supports their candidate or any negative items about the candidate they don’t support.
I watch the news every day and I have yet to find out factual comparisons on all of the important issues each candidate stand for . So it is difficult for anyone to make an informed decision.
The media is out of control and they should be ashamed. I include the RRS in the group. Locally there is much more coverage of Obama than of McCain and most of the journalist’s are obviously behind Obama. One of the paid bloggers is devoted entirely to Obama and you can expect a personal attack if you submit a different point of view. Even in your article it is obvious by the way you presented your thoughts that you are of the democratic persuasion.
But that’s OK. If I want your viewpoints, I have the option to read your article. Locally there is no place to go for an opposing view. My only complaint is that there is no media outlet that we as voters, can go to view with confidence any FACTUAL, accurate, and timely direct comparisons between the two presidential candidates without personal opinions.
All we get is personal attacks and very negative campaigns generated by the media. So I would like to ask you and other members of the voters board to answer the question. How do we sort through all the chatter to come to a decision on who to vote for?
2. DaForce | September 11th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Still waiting for an answer. Kick it around it the voters panel and let us know.
3. Gary Tiffany | October 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
You ask how does one sort through the chatter to come to a decision on who to vote for. That’s a good question.Hopefully, you saw my follow-up posting on that subject. I’m slowly getting the hang of this blogging stuff and wasn’t sure whether to simply reply to your comment or post another entry.I chose the latter. If you didn’t see the follow-up, please look at it as it talks about what avenues I’m using to hel pmake a decision. Two website that can help, too, are factcheck.org and snopes.com.
Thanks for reading and thanks for posting a comment.
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