Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Identity Politics

Why do pundits and people of the press always jump to the conclusion that voters will vote for people that have the same sex, or the same skin color, or the same religion? Now I know that there are some voters out there who don’t take the time to become educated about the issues and the candidates. Some of those lazy voters will pull the lever (or push the button) for the candidate they think is most like them. After all, we do want someone in positions that can impact our lives who think like us. The lazy voter apparently believes that if someone looks like us or worships like us, they think like us. Nothing can be further than the truth!

Personally, I get somewhat offended when someone thinks I’ll vote for particular candidate because I’m a woman, or because I’m a veteran, or because of my religion. It makes me feel like I haven’t got the smarts or the gumption to find out for myself what position the candidate has on the issues that are important to me. I care too much for this Country to shortcut my civic responsibility. Voting for someone based only on their identity seems to me to be like picking your favorite sports team based only on the color of their uniforms or buying a car based only on a flashy ad. Stupid!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree completely! It is those who don't find out the facts about a candidate and vote for them based on some similarity that cause more problems than needed. To be an informed voter is to be a competent citizen. Voting for someone based upon their sex, race, or other "face value" basis is just wrong. If the American people only voted for the "attractive" one, Abraham Lincoln would never have been elected.

Unknown said...

I agree with you ..My parents always told us to find out about the candidate, not only where they stood on policies that we agreed with but also who their associates were and then vote our conscience. But vote..If we do not take the time to vote, we have no right to complain when things don't go as we thought they should. I agree with auntie2 when it comes to Lincoln and a few others..