A Few Things to Take into Consideration When Deciding Who to Vote For

What's the biggest factor in a person's choice for presidential candidate? For some, we focus on the issues, and we look long and hard at the candidate's political background. But, for the majority of Americans, we focus on the negative political ads on TV, the "slam campaigns" presented from all over the board. The focus has become increasingly pessimistic. It seems like for every ad we see, claiming one candidate's positive plans for the country, there are at least three other ads saying why the other candidate is a poor choice for the presidential office, two of those ads approved by the opposing candidate.

While, it's important to know both the candidates' flaws, it's much more important to know their strengths. It is never a good idea to try to decide who is going to run the country for the next four years, by trying to decide if the other candidate is worse.

Sadly, at this point in time, we live in a basically two-party system. We have not a had a president that wasn't a Democrat or Republican since Andrew Johnson who was a member of the War Union Party. In case you're taking notes, that's 139 years without a Democrat or Republican president. Is this a bad thing? Well, it is and it isn't. We've built the nation on the values of these two parties and we've learned to function, some would say, more efficiently by only seriously looking at these two parties. At the same time, there are candidates with very good plans for America that are potentially better choices than the two main candidates, but the media won't seriously look at them, and therefore, we don't seriously look at them.

However, I digress from my point. All of your choices are going to have flaws. They have flaws in their views, in their character, in their personal lives, because all candidates are human. So, if someone is arguing their candidate to you, don't strike back with how their candidate is flawed. Talk about how your candidate's views are better. Explain why. Explain how their values embody your own values, and if you can't then maybe you need to start looking at a new candidate.

I've switched political views many times over the years, and I've switched candidates mid-race many times, too. That doesn't make me a flip-flopper, it makes me a person. To think that a person's political views will never change is to think that a person is a machine with specific views programmed into them. It's important for a candidate to be firm, but not stubborn. An important quality in a presidential candidate is his/her ability to learn, because new information can come about and that has to be taken into account. If you suddenly don't feel very confident in your candidate, don't feel bad, and vote for him, because you don't want to flip-flop. Look at the other candidates and decide for yourself who's best for you.