Sunday, November 4, 2012

Are You Wasting Your Vote? Are You Sure?

I’m not telling you who to vote for. I’m not telling you to vote at all. But if you do vote, it’s incumbent upon you to vote for someone for the right reasons. People have sometimes described my voting choices (such as for "third party" candidates) as “wasting your vote because they cannot win.”

I won’t go into how that sort of reasoning defeats the purpose of free elections. But it does bring up the issue of  “wasting your vote.” Ask yourself “why am I voting for this particular guy?” Is it because of a single reason or issue you have as a pet peeve? Are you voting for Obama because of his position on gay marriage? Are you voting for Romney because the Republican party endorses him? Are you voting “not for this guy, but against that guy"? If your decision is based on a single issue or the lesser of two evils, then you, my friend, are wasting your vote.

Would it surprise you that there are not two, but eleven presidential candidates? Who are they? What do they all stand for? Sure, not all may have the same view as you on, say, space exploration, but you may be surprised how many similarities you do share. Here’s a fascinating website I found. http://www.isidewith.com It is a website that doesn’t endorse any particular candidate, but instead offers a brief quiz to find what you stand for and matches up what you believe in with the presidential candidate with the same views as you. No candidate will match you exactly, but it will give you an excellent feel for who would properly represent YOU. Take the quiz. I highly recommend answering the additional questions in the links at the bottom of each section. Certainly not all questions have a clearly defined yes-or-no response, so click the “Choose another stance” which brings up other choices. You may be surprised who matches your ideals.

After you take the quiz, be true to yourself and vote according to what you find. If it turns out that your thoughts are more in line with Goode, Obama, Stein, Johnson, Romney or someone else, then vote that way! Don’t make your decision based solely on abortion or gay marriage or “he’s black” or “he’s not black” or because you belong to a particular party or because your favorite news outlet says so. Vote because your candidate is the right person for the job. No one will be exactly perfect, but go with what is best for all of us according to what you find out overall. Don’t vote for someone because of one single issue. Don’t waste your vote.

http://www.isidewith.com