Vote Deciders

With the Presidential election coming up next Tuesday, I wanted to give a rundown of how I decide my choice. Your decision tree may be very different than mine, but all in all, the factors below are the basic ingredients for every voter when finally deciding who to cast your vote for. In no particular order yet, the following factors determine my choice: moral/ethical makeup, economic policy, civil rights policy, foreign policy, military policy, and more. How do I rank them and what affects my choices? Let’s just dive right in.

Factor 1: Moral & Ethical Makeup

This is my ultimate tie-breaker, game changer, and make or break factor. If a candidate does not display these qualities, there can never be a level of trust which would involve me casting my vote for that candidate. Liars, immoral people, and untrustworthy politicians are at the root of the problems we are facing these days. If more people factored in the real person hiding behind the Party’s ticket, we would not have the overwhelming governmental problems we are facing today.

Factor 2: Economic Policy

I put economic policy on a fairly high standard because of a simple historical fact. If the United States fails to be an economic super power, then we are at risk of an inevitable collapse. Countries and governments cannot survive and be stable for the long term without solid economic policy. History has shown and proved this fact time and again. Strong economic policy is a must. Creating jobs, taxation policy, trade agreements… all are key components when determining who should be your choice.

Factor 3: Constitutional Rights Policy

Within this segment, I focus upon our rights as citizens. How does the candidate deal with and support our Constitution? Does the candidate uphold what our forefathers detailed and supported via the Bill of Rights? If a candidate prefers to rationalize and shred the documents our country was founded upon, it’s a deal breaker no matter what the other factors direct me to do.

Factor 4: Military Policy

Our President, our commander in chief, MUST have a strong military policy. We cannot rely upon diplomacy as our first weapon of defense in every situation. We must not rely upon the United Nations to protect our interests abroad. We MUST focus on creating and maintaining the most technologically advanced military in the world. We MUST have the best trained fighting force and have the best equipped service men and women.

Factor 5: Foreign Policy

Foreign policy has become more important through the years as our world becomes “closer.” No longer can we utilize isolationist policies and be competent. We must focus upon globalization and focus upon the world community when interacting with the foreign communities.

There are many other factors which affect people’s choices but I believe if you find a candidate who satisfies the above factors, the remaining factors will fall into place. What about education policy or health care policy? What about civil rights? What about immigration policy or affirmative action policy? As I said, there are many factors and each of us has varying degrees of sensitivity to them. But, when it comes down to it, our President should MASTER the above five categories and if that is the case, all underlying policy decisions will likely be satisfied accordingly.

If you don’t know where your candidate falls within each category, then you have some investigating to do. If you vote and don’t know what they stand for, you are hurting not only yourself, but the entire country. Learn what the candidates are about and decide honestly on where they stand and not what you HOPE they will be. One thing to remember, no candidate will ever satisfy your decision tree 100% but you must focus upon the deal breaker factors when you choose. Choose wisely and make an informed vote, our future depends on it.