How to Vote

Yesterday I talked about our corrupt politicians in Washington whose votes on important bills and laws can be bought by the highest bidder, most often lobbyists.  The topic meandered towards the upcoming presidential election and who would be the better candidate, or as I put it yesterday, the lesser of two evils.  Frankly, at this point, I don't know who is the lesser of two evils, Obama who seems to be pretty dead set on turning the United States of America into the Socialist States of America, or Romney who likes to evade taxes as much as possible and ship American jobs overseas.  There is a lot more that can be said about these main two candidates, but for now we will let them waddle around, mudslinging each other in an attempt to gain the upper hand.  What I want to talk about today was sparked by a comment on my link that I posted to Facebook yesterday.  The comment said, "As Catholics, we are to vote for the most pro-life candidate."  As a Catholic myself, I find a few errors in that statement.  While I am pro-life myself and feel that it is important to have a person in office who is pro-life, to vote based on that issue alone is to, in my mind, throw your vote away.  When voting for president, the decision we make must be based on much more than whether or not a candidate is pro-life or pro-choice.  There are a vast array of issues that need to be taken into consideration when making an informed decision on who to vote for.   These range from economic policy to foreign policy and every other "policy" you can think of. 

My biggest problem is that any politician who claims to be pro-life can essentially have their minds changed by lobbyists and special interest groups.  Just take a look at Romney who has gone back and forth between pro-life and pro-choice a number of times.  Obama has proclaimed himself to be essentially pro-choice with his health care law that mandates every woman have access to contraceptives and "family planning".  So where does that leave us if we are to vote based solely on whether a candidate is pro-life or not?  To me, the options aren't that good based upon that one issue.  Regardless, if one candidate was strongly pro-life (which Romney claims to be), and the other was adamantly pro-choice, I would still look at their stances on a wide range of other issues before making my choice.   Lets just say that Romney is pro-life like he says.  Then lets look at his tax evasion and his drive to send jobs overseas.  To me, regardless if he is pro-life, the other issues make him seem like a poor candidate.  If it came down to it, I would much rather vote for a candidate who had a sound plan to restore our economy, keep jobs in the United States, and reduce the size of government even if their candidate was pro-choice.  To me, the bigger picture is more important the a person's stance on one issue.  I can't personally justify voting based on that one issue alone, but maybe that is just me. 

To me, being an informed voter and making the right decision means looking at the whole picture and voting based on the person as a whole, not based on one of their beliefs.  That being said, I feel it is important to stay true to who we are as individuals and vote, if we can, based upon our beliefs.  However, there is a grave conundrum that arises in either case.  If we vote based upon the good of the majority yet put aside our beliefs to do so, or we staying true to who we are?  Or if we vote based upon our personal beliefs and disregard the good of the majority, are we doing are fellow citizens a disservice?  I think that it is a fine line that we need to walk in order to maintain our beliefs and be true to ourselves while also taking into consideration the good of our fellow citizens.  The United States is a widely diverse country and I feel if we vote based upon either our religious or ethical beliefs alone, we might ultimately make the wrong decision.  We aren't guaranteed to do so, but the possibility is there.  To be a more effective voter, I feel we need to look at what will be best for everyone in our country and vote based upon who will have the greatest beneficial impact for the largest amount of people.  It is not an easy decision and one we should not take lightly, but we should savor the fact that we do have the opportunity to vote and hopefully make a difference.  We have the right to vote unlike many people in this world and we need to make the right decision based upon the larger picture.  So when voting this year, I say to try and stay true to your beliefs, but consider every issue at hand and make a decision based upon that, not upon one belief.