What are you voting for?
Tomorrow is an important day for the U.S., as voters head to the polls to decide who will be a part of the U.S. Congress and who will take the 36 Senate seats currently up for grabs.
When heading to the polls, it’s important to decide which issues are the most important to you, and to vote based on your convictions.
Are there any good choices?
With politicians and parties becoming ever more polarized, you might find the choice to be between two unpalatable polar opposites. Instead of reasonable debate and discourse, politicians have often resorted to slanderous name-calling as well as hateful messages and attack ads. There appears to be no middle ground between these two factions.
When you have two increasingly polarized parties, it is obvious that half the country is going to be unhappy with the outcome. Can you be simultaneously for and against Obama-style health care? How about stimulus spending and make-work projects? Can you be both for and against them? If the country is evenly split on these policies, then if 51% end up voting for one party, half the country is going to be unhappy with the election results. Thus is the result of a dog-eat-dog world of winner-take-all democracy!
What if you don’t like the current choices?
The current choices are two sides of the same coin, but either way, you are choosing a system that you might not necessarily agree with. Maybe you believe in a free choice of schools and an end to monopolies, or maybe you believe that the state should control all schooling. Maybe you believe that a person’s sexuality is their choice and not a moral question for the government to decide, or maybe you believe that it’s the state’s business to legislate against what it deems to be “immoral” behaviors. Maybe you believe that the U.S. military is overextended and should be pulled in, or maybe you believe that the U.S. should occupy the entire Middle East. Whatever your beliefs are on these and many more issues, you are not likely to find any change on current policy with either of the two mainstream parties. In the end, you might have to go with what you perceive to be the “lessor of two evils”.
What’s at stake?
Although this video is meant to “scare”, I found it interesting. Be sure to check out the parody video afterwards, too. The Biz of Life is also hosting these videos, among with many other interesting videos.
Keeping things in perspective
As polarized and hateful as US-style politics seems to be becoming, things might not be as bad as they seem. Check out these clips showing the “democratic process” at work in other countries.
So, reader, which issues are the most important to you? As a Canadian, I am observing these elections from afar. I am nonetheless interested in the outcome, and I hope that the choices made tomorrow will lead to better outcomes down the road for our friends in the south and for everyone.
As a Canadian, I am also watching from the sidelines. I am just hoping that the US gets its act together as I really would not like to see this nation surpassed by China!
Maybe the U.S. can get some inspiration from China and start implementing some S.E.Zs. Indeed, the whole idea of the US government was supposed to be that each state was its own S.E.Z. as the federal govt. was not supposed to have so much say over everything. I guess the problem is that those areas would boom, and that would probably be destabilizing to the federal govt. as a whole.
There was a pretty good brawl among politicians in the old Soviet Block states a few years back. I wish I could remember the name of the country.
I’ll be voting tomorrow for smaller government, less wasteful spending, less borrowing and no tax increases. It would be truly refreshing to actually see some real cuts in government spending, not the typical smoke and mirrors stuff both parties seem to specialize in.
Indeed, I’ve been watching a lot of your vids and while I agree with a lot of the underlying message, I want to see if these guys are actually going to walk the walk. Nothing is more damaging than pretending to be for freedom and markets and then doing the opposite in practice (Bush, anyone?)
The Biz of Life – I believe it was Ukraine. I can see them doing it. What the hell, I can see all former Soviet bloc countries doing it.
As far as voting goes – I am voting first time in the US (Yay!) and I am excited about it. Some of the candidates in our state are not on my favorite list, so I will have to choose the lesser evil.
Haha, I think it might have been the Ukraine, too. My Korean roommate thinks that politicians in Korea are such clowns due to the fist fighting and stuff.
The Chinese Professor video is very sneaky and xenophobic. Who made this mess? The financial sector, the unending wars, and the corporate greed. What does the Chinese have to do with it? What would have happened if the government didn’t pass the stimulus and bail out plan?
Agreed, the video is trying to play to people’s xenophobic fears. Just find some people on the other side of the world that look and speak differently, and paint a sinister picture. 😉
Regardless of the “scary” meme, the underlying message that debt and spending are excessive and that excessive monetary manipulation leads to malinvestment and asset bubbles is important. Maybe the Chinese WILL be teaching this lesson to their kids in 20 years from now. I would prefer that we learn from the lesson before it gets to that point (and they could probably learn from it too, since they’re caught in this just as we are).
I’ll be watching for sure Kevin!
I can’t see how smaller government and more fiscal restraint wouldn’t be top of mind for folks. I’ve been wrong many times before though 🙂
Cheers!
Mark
It seems that this one is all about the economy, though it seems like the Republicans have shot themselves in the foot a bit by nominating extreme candidates who have subsequently lost their local elections, rather than more moderate candidates that would have won! Maybe it’s time the whole two-party dichotomy go out the window, as that is just as silly as moderate Democrats with the same views as many Republicans losing just because of the term “Democrat”!
Cage fights in the US Congress…. Now there’s a thought I could get behind. Maybe it could be Thunderdome style, with big chainsaws and poleaxes hanging off the sides. Maybe after a while, getting elected to Congress wouldn’t seem like such a cushy gig.
LOL, Nice. Maybe the occasional paintball fight wouldn’t hurt!
Great thoughts. I’ll be voting today, and prodding everyone I know to do the same. While I’ll restrain from broadcasting my political views, I will say that in regards to walking the walk, I think it’s better to drag your feet a little while trying to walk forward than bulldozing through, just because the other side is in the minority. 😉 Hopefully, there will be more walking in our future.
The thing about democracy is that even if a party “wins”, the truth is upwards of 40% of people did NOT want that candidate nor his platform. The true dog-eat-dog world is the world of politics! With that said, treading lightly in the beginning might not be such a bad idea, though I don’t think anyone will ever be happy with such a system in place.
As a non-citizen I am watching from the side as well (though I have helped a friend with the campaign). I would love to see small government as well, but it just looks like a Democrat-Republican cycle every single time. People get frustrated with one party so vote for the other and hope they do better “this time around”… Lets see where it goes…
Yep, maybe the whole two-party thing has led the country down into a rut. Maybe it’s time the red and blue states seperate and form their own federal governments? Heh, they could become like the EU and maintain open borders and free immigration within what would become the United States Union? 😛
Well, in a way I win no matter what tonight because we will get rid of our Governor. (Term limits are wonderful in this case.)
Believe it or not, our city library is at risk of closing, so I am curious what happens with that proposal. Ironically, our school district is one of the top 3 in the state and the city itself is upper middle class. However, we have an idiot for a mayor and she has made the library her pawn in a political fight with her adversaries. I hate raising taxes, but I will do it to save the library.
We actually have a proposal on the ballot that bans former felons from running for office. I think that proposal was written specifically to keep Kwame Kirkpatrick from coming back to Detroit to run for office.
You actually need a proposal to ban former felons? :S
What if the library instituted user fees… or do they already have those? I can’t imagine that the place costs so much since it obviously already exists, so what’s the big deal? Aren’t there other areas with more fat to be trimmed?
I’m out in NM and the Navajo Nation is having a historical vote on their new president. One of the canidates is a woman. A woman has never lead the nation because of gender beliefs. The controversy is deep but to listen to the debates is so different from our state election for NM Governor (also historic, between two women). It’s nasty and they don’t even touch on the issues. Although the Navajo Nation is split the debates have depth and the canidates don’t attack each other, surprise, they talk about the issues! It’s been a great respite from all this crazy!
You damn lucky Canadians!
Wow, who would have thought that would even be possible! I think it’s great that current US law allows native nations to practice a degree of sovereignty (although would have been even nicer had they respected that many decades ago!). Maybe it’s a good concept that should be extended in scope.
I’m very proud to have performed my patriotic obligation by voting yesterday. I’m not very political at all, but this time it was hard not to take a side because the issues at hand are just too polarizing. I’m happy that it is over and hope that these next two years will be more productive and civil.
Let’s hope for that! With the presidential election coming up in two years, the parties know that the pressure is on… and the voters are watching!
Wow! Based on the clips above, our elections do appear to be more civil.
Indeed… the attack ads are pretty bad, but at least the worst (that I’ve heard of) is some guy screaming “you lie!”. No actual fists flying… yet.
New York Resident here…I wanted to vote for “The Rent is Too Damn High Guy” – check out his videos! I didn’t though lol
The rent is too damn high? Hahaha… I thought NYC was the capital of rent control with those huge tenements on Manhattan going for $150 a month or something like that.
Damn I want to watch all these vids but having to call it a day right now. I think the lesser of two evils is exactly the voting choice in USA right now….
I wonder if ballot cards have a “None of the above — all of these candidates stink!” choice?