Voting (Use Your Own Mind)

I'll get to the Voting (Soft Line) soon, which will explain how I would now try to get people to see the power of voting, rather than taking the hard line. The hard line rarely works, I've found, as people, regardless of if they vote or not, are all to quick to complain. To be honest, I still don't want to hear your opinion if you don't want to do your part in working towards a solution, but I'll try to curb that disdain for non-voters by being more encouraging to vote rather than walking away.

But for now, I want to talk about the importance of not being swayed by news media, friends, and polls.

I was watching The O'Reilly Factor the other night, and he gave his opinion on who he thought was already a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination and who he thought had no shot on both side, citing the polls for his opinion.

Folks...DO NOT TRUST POLLS. And definitely don't let what the polls say affect your decision to vote or how to vote AT ALL. John Kerry was a perfect example as to why polls aren't always reliable. The normal polls had Kerry way back for the 2004 caucaus in Iowa...but he remained steadfast in believing he was the frontrunner because the information he had from within his camp said differently than "the polls". He passed up Edwards and Howard Dean(who the polls said was the clear favorite at the time) and went on to get the nomination.

The reason I mention this is two fold...on the Republican side, I like Mike Huckabee so far, who O'Reilly said had no shot. And on the Democratic side, I like Barack Obama who, despite Hillary's poor debate, O'Reilly says still has no chance. It's important to keep an open mind, so I still have to research more of each canidate's stances, but I won't let the fact that Bill O'Reilly and the Polls don't like Huckabee prevent me from voting for him in the primary. And you shouldn't either.

Polls are small, miniscule, data sets and their margin of errors that are reported are ridiculously understated. So don't let what 100, 1000, 10000, or even 100000 people polled by CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, The USA Today, etc. begin to influence who you like or think has a shot at getting the nomination.

Make sure to get out there and vote...and vote for who you want. If they don't get the nomination, don't get discouraged. Still stay engaged, demand that your representatives listen to you whether you voted for them or not. In fact, they should be more scared of those that didn't vote for them...hoping to win them over through their performance for the next time around. Remember, the power is in your hands.

Voting (Hard Line)

When I first started this blog, way before my bout of inactivity, I had a post about voting. With today being a voting day for municipalities, I figured I'd revisit this topic. Part of me still takes the hard-line stance I had back during this post.

To be honest, if you don't want to get out and vote, I don't want to hear your complaining...at all. I'm not talking about squelching free speech. Of course the right to complain is covered under the First Amendment. What I'm talking about is the moral right that I believe ceases to exist once you've chose to throw your voting rights, and in my view obligation, aside.

Each vote counts...and each vote counts more if you don't vote. When you give up your power...your voting power...someone else is glad to take that power from you and have their vote count more towards getting the things they want want done, accomplished. For instance...for each Pro Lifer out there that doesn't vote, there's plenty of Pro Choicers out there to gobble up their voting power to use towards voting on someone that's Pro Choice. And when someone that's Pro Choice gets into power, you have no one to blame but yourself for not using your power to get the things done that you want.

So don't Vote, if you're one of those people out there that thinks that their vote doesn't matter. Hell, tell all your friends not to vote. Me, I'll gladly have me and my friends vote in someone that believes the same way we do so we can get our agenda taken care of.