Should I vote for a presidential candidate that will help me satisfy all my goals and beliefs in the next four years?
… that will help me satisfy all my goals/beliefs in the next ten years?
… in the next lifetime?
… ever?
Another question I could ask myself is whether or not this candidate provides for the well-being of myself, my family, my friends, and my country.
Recently, I was conversing with some friends on the current status of our lives, our world, and what may be in store for us in the future. My outlook is broken up into periods- the week ahead, month ahead, 1.5 year ahead, 2.5 year ahead, and then 12.5 year ahead. It is difficult for me to ponder anything beyond that time frame. I plan on picking a candidate that provides for the best environment for me to live my life and for my future to live its life.
We had talked about what we thought were the best ways of going about researching and choosing a candidate that meets our wants and needs. Here are the results, a condensed and paraphrased list of 3 basic steps which we thought worked best:
1. Sketch a rough picture of what you would like to accomplish in the next year and in the next ten years.
This enables you to decide what is important to you in regards to your short-term and long-term goals. It also helped me put a plan together for my future– an enormous confidence booster!
2. Match your ‘rough picture’ of goals and plans to each major issue on the table in this term’s presidential election.
An easy way to do this is to take your list of goals/plans. Number them in order of importance or relevance or even time frame. Go to each candidates website and find the page[s] with their stance on important issues. Rank [easiest to rank on a 1-5 point system] each issue for each candidate as they correspond to your list of goals/plans.
3. Choose whichever candidate you like the best.
For that candidate you LIKE add ten points. Which one came out with the most points? If you like vote for that one. If you feel the candidate with the most points definitely should not be the one you vote for then we have accomplished our goal. You are now educated on each candidate, the issues they stand for, and what is important to you.
I know, seems like a lot of work to choose a candidate to vote for. No one ever said Democracy is easy. A couple friends of mine tried this method and were very impressed with how they felt about their vote.
"I never realized how much my vote affects my life, now and ten years from now!" -R.T.
"This is the first time I’ve ever been completely sure of who I want to be President. It feels kind of good." -A.P.
