Almost everyone agrees that things are very wrong in our country today. What they cannot seem to agree on is how we can make it right. But if you really take a close look, fixing it is rather simple. As simple as discovering your own values BEFORE you enter the voting booth.
Here are just a couple of the primary reasons we are in the mess we are in:
1) Most people who vote are voting not for a platform, but for a single issue, perhaps two, such as abortion, or stem cell research, or terrorism.
2) Many people vote the party line, and in most cases, they really do not know where that line is drawn - they vote a party because their father did, or their spouse did, or their circle of friends do - or simply because they ALWAYS did.
3) Many more people do not even bother to vote.
Now, here is why those things are causing our problems:
1) By voting on just one or two issues that are important to you, you may very well be voting AGAINST 100 issues that are also important to you, but have not received as much media hype. For example, you believe in abortion rights, so you vote for the Democrat. But you also believe we need to be tougher on the border, tougher with terrorists, you want people to be more responsible, you want to get tougher on welfare and other "freebies" - all those things that mean a lot to you. But the Democrat you just voted for is against those very things. Hence, your vote helps create a larger problem overall, simply because you voted based on just one or two issues, rather than a full platform
2) By voting party line, you encourage the corruption that grows when our elected officials stay in office forever. You are not voting for honesty, integrity or performance. Instead, you are voting on a party. And chances are 2-1 that you really do not fully understand what the party stands for, and the chances are 9-1 against you knowing what the OTHER party really stands for, because the media will only tell you what it wants you to know.
3) And not voting is simply not a good option UNLESS you are so uninformed that you have no business in choosing our leaders.
With this in mind, there is a relatively painless and simple way to fix what is wrong with our nation. It is a simple as becoming more informed. No, not just from the media - they will not be honest in all things. What you need to do is just THREE things:
1) Find out first-hand, through your own research, what the actual full platform is of each party, including Republican, Democrat, Libertarian. Only by knowing exactly what they do and do not stand for can you make informed choices. For example, most Republicans were not aware that McCain was pro-choice. And most Democrats were not aware that Obama stated outright that he intended to dramatically increase the cost of ALL energy. And neither Republicans nor Democrats really knew anything at all about Ron Paul, the Libertarian.
2) Having studied the platforms, ask yourself which items in each platform most closely resemble your beliefs. You may be surprised to discover you are more conservative than you ever imagined, or more liberal than anyone knew. If you agree with more than 50% of a platform, chances are you should be voting for candidates that follow that platform. And there is a good chance that you will find you should be voting FOR the candidate you once thought you should vote AGAINST.
3) Once you understand the platforms, research the histories and voting records of the candidates, then vote for the ones that most closely align themselves with your beliefs. Sure, listen to their rhetoric. But match their talk with what they actually do. You don't hire an employee without checking his references. Don't elect an official without doing the same.
Of course, there is one more step - once you become truly informed, don't forget to follow through, and VOTE.
I cannot tell you what the platform is for the Democrats or Libertarians - I know what they are, but have not yet written them down. But you can find the platform of Republicans/conservatives at http://success-by-design.blogspot.com/2009/01/if-you-hate-conservatives-know-why.html
Bear in mind a very important fact: you will not likely agree with everything in a platform. A platform merely provides the basic tenets of the average person in the party, and is not meant to represent any one set of beliefs. The idea is to find a platform that meets more of your needs than not, and one that you agree with more than you disagree.
Just as a matter of record, the Republican platform stated on the page I listed, above, has been polled nationally and the results indicate that 84% of Americans agree with more than 50% of the platform, and as much as 65% of all Americans agree with more than 70% of the platform. So, it appears to be pretty much what "mainstream" folks believe in, at least for the most part.
As I said, very few folks will agree 100% with any platform. The key to fixing this country is finding out what you believe in, finding which platform most closely follows your beliefs, and which candidates most closely follow that platform. Sure it takes a bit of effort, but when you realize that only we, the People can fix this, then it is we, the People, who must become better informed, and stop relying so much on biased media outlets, misinformed friends and uninformed associates. In other words, stop listening to those who tell you what you want to hear, or what they want you to hear, and start discovering the truth. Check out BOTH sides. Listen not only to CNN, but also to FoxNews. Get a more well-rounded idea of what is REALLY going on. Otherwise, there is no hope of fixing anything.
/
No comments:
Post a Comment