1. VOTE! In Australia, citizens who don’t vote are fined! We should take the privilege and responsibility of selecting our leaders just as seriously as that. Don’t shrug it off. Employers must give you time off to vote. If you need a ride to the polls, call the League of Women Voters, your political party, a neighbor. Please.
Note: It’s okay to vote only for the things you are certain about, even if that is only one thing.
2. Please don’t vote for a candidate or an issue you don’t know enough about to make a wise choice.
For instance, don’t vote for someone because he’s the incumbent, because s/he belongs to the same political party your family has always voted for, or because she’s done so much campaigning her name sounds familiar. Don’t vote for someone because you have a friend with that name or you like the way he does his hair. Don’t go for the candidate who dismisses his opponent with the most cutesy names or most insulting trash talk. This isn’t high school.
Don’t vote for a candidate just because he is taller (I understand every presidential winner in our country’s history except one was the taller of the candidates), more personable, more attractive, a smoother speaker, or who has dangled before you more delectable entitlements this country can’t afford. I talked with a fellow juror once who said O.J. Simpson, being tried elsewhere at the same time, couldn’t possibly be guilty because he was so handsome. She was serious.
This election matters. Again, please don’t treat it like a popularity or personality contest.
Jessica Renshaw
hiddeninjesus 