The Importance of Voting
Posted on 22 January 2008 by Michael Callaway
Iowa and New Hampshire have come and gone, and we have had two completely different results. Mike Huckabee and Barak Obama won the first round; John McCain and Hillary Clinton won the second. What do these results mean to? To me? Voting is a privilege that far too many Americans do not take advantage of, partly because they do not see how it affects their daily lives, and to some degree they are right.
It is highly doubtful that I will vote for Senator Clinton. If she becomes President, my life and, quite honestly, most people’s lives, are not going to change that much. Had Al Gore been elected in 2000, we probably would still be in some type of war in Iraq and terrorists would have still attacked us on September 11th. The mortgage crisis would still be happening and the stock market would still be going down.
It would seem that I am making an argument against voting, which I am not. While your daily life will probably not change overnight regardless of who becomes President, the long-term affects of a President are extremely important. Ronald Reagan believed that the Soviet Union was the Evil Empire; it was not an empire that we could co-exist with or something that we should just accept as a reality; it had to be defeated. Looking back at history, it is obvious that Reagan was right, yet at the time, not everyone believed this to be true. Many people believed that containing the Soviet Union was the best we could hope for. Reagan believed we could eliminate it and that is what we did.
Ideas are important. The President is important. If you are in an early primary state, make sure you vote in that primary. When you vote, vote for someone that you believe in. They do not have to agree with you on every issue. Pick the issues most important to you and go with those. The last thing I want to see is someone vote for a candidate because of a negative commercial, misleading story or because of media-based momentum. Pick what is important to you and stay with it. Like the Bible says, while beauty and charm are misleading and do not last long, character on the other hand lasts a lifetime.
Popularity: 8% [?]
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 am
I can agree that we won’t see a huge difference in our lives for the first few years of any presidency. At least, not due to changes made by that president. I have noticed, however, that the economy takes an upturn or a downturn based on the public’s satisfaction with the President.
Economically speaking, much of our lives is affected by the perception of things rather than the reality. Bush may not have made any changes, but when we were confident in him, we felt better about spending money. When we lost confidence in him, we started spending a little less.
But I would argue that it still matters to my daily life who is the President of the United States. Since you brought up the biblical reference, I suggest we all read through the stories of Israel’s kings in the Old Testament. You will see that the moral code and spiritual standing of the nation’s leader affects every aspect of the nation’s well-being.
Leaders set the national precedent. They are the nation’s authority. Prosperity, blessing, and poverty trickle down from the top. Your President may not help pass a law that raises or lowers your taxes or significantly changes law, but your President declares the national standard for politics, economy, spirituality, morality, and more.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
We are amazingly fortunate to live in a day and age where information is so easily accessible. It is understandable that our parents’ and grandparents’ generations didn’t get out and vote in drones. The ability to find out who would have been the best person to be your voice in the government was often left to the individual. Politicians still campaigned, but they never received the kind of coverage that they do today. It is one thing to compute the information of each candidate and still choose not to vote; it’s an entirely different thing to not vote because of any feelings of unavailability of information.
If anybody needs a good place to start to at least narrow down your search, try this: (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/president.shtml)
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
very well put. i am saddened that our right to vote is taken so lightly by so many people. not even one hundred years ago women and african americans were unable to vote. in how many countries now do people lose their lives fighting for this right, the right so many people here take for granted.
i have been more informed this year than ever before perhaps because as i grow older i realize the impact one person has not only on our country but on the world, if for no other reason than in our morale. i hope that no matter who wins this year, it is not because they look good, or because their husband was good, or because of their race or gender but because people honestly believed in what that person was saying.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I can appreciate the fact that finally a woman is trying to take position in the highest chair we have available…the presidency. However, I highly doubt she is the right person for the job. As much as I would love to see a woman president in my lifetime, I would much rather prefer to have a trustworthy, intelligent, and hard-working PERSON as a president. For the first time in many years, I am fully sold on a single candidate. It is unfortunate but he does not seem to be a very popular vote. His campaign is small even for this highly technological era. Regardless of his low popularity I still plan to go out and place my vote.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I hope that the president does have some impact on our daily lives. If he doesn’t, he should. I won’t be voting for Hillary either. I completely agree with Lisa. I’d rather see a qualified candidate regardless of gender. I just don’t trust her, to be completely honest. I don’t think its fair for her to use her husband’s presidency as part of her qualifications to run the country.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
This will be my first year to vote actually and im very excited. Im almost 27 yrs old and never voted!!!!! I guess i didnt vote the last two times bc i felt we were in trouble either way i went and didnt feel i had any good choices! But this time around i think we have a chance and bettering our future! So i have been studying up on them and cant wait to get out and vote, hope u all will too. I have a daughter and feel the same way depending on what happens now shapes her future ya dig?
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I must admit that other than the “popular” buzz surrounding the candidates, I know very little about what’s going on. I guess I’m waiting for the parties to pick their candidates. I don’t want to get all excited about someone, only to find that the party didn’t pick that person because they weren’t electable.