Common Sense Guide to Voting

Sometimes I get into discussions with people that invariably go wrong. By “go wrong” I mean run off track; to a place not originally intended. If there’s one theme that’s most likely to perform this service, it’s politics.

There’s a great deal wrong with politics. Most of which is (unfortunately) unavoidable. Humans are flawed. Flawed humans make mistakes. The greater the responsibility, the greater the opportunity of huge mistakes. Anyway, back to the reason for this post.

How do you decide who to vote for?

If you do nothing else, please don’t vote for someone simply because of their party. Please, please, please! For all that is good and pure, just don’t do it. It’s the lazy way out. Lazy isn’t cool, is it?

So then, how do you choose? Simple. Vote for people who most closely share your values. In your life, what do you value most?

Me? Glad you asked. ;^)

I value Jesus above all else. When I die, I’m fully expecting Him to save me from an eternity of separation from God. Next I value my wife, kids and family. Then my beloved Wildcats friends, career, et al.

So how do I find out how the politicians voted on issues important to me? Well, I utilize an organizaton that shares those values to produce a scorecard of sorts. In fact, they call it the Vote Scorecard.

Below are the 17 most important issues of the 110th Congress, in terms of lining up with my values.

Faith
* Prevent Faith-Based Discrimination in Head Start Program
* Federal Hate Crimes Act

Family
* Prevent DC Gay Marriage
* Prohibits Federal Implementation of Fairness Doctrine

Friends (Human Life)
* Prohibition on Funding Human Cloning
* Embryonic Stem Cell Research Act
* Human Cloning Protection Act
* Embryonic Stem Cell Research Act
* Maintain Abstinence and Faithfulness Programs to Prevent Spread of HIV/AIDs
* Undermine Mexico City Policy by Funding International Abortion Groups
* Maintain Mexico City Policy on International Abortion Funding
* Restrict Funding to Planned Parenthood
* Children’s Health Bill for Low-Income Families

Other
* Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
* Prohibit Funding for Washington DC Needle Exchange Program
* Employment Non-Discrimination Act
* Exploit the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)

If we look at how our elected representative voted, rather than what they may have said in, for example, recent campaign commercials (which we all know are biased to the extreme), we get a more accurate view of them. For example, looking at both of Kentucky’s Senators, Bunning and McConnell, they voted 100% of the time with my values. Awesome!

My congressman, John Yarmuth, voted with me on only 11% of the 17 items. That’s not a very high percentage. I’m probably not going to vote for Yarmuth in the next election, especially considering his opponent, Ann Northup, usually ranks much higher on my scorecard.

So, I’m not voting for someone simply because I like the way they look on TV, or the way they respond to media questions, but by how they shape my America with their votes. It’s really just common sense.

If you do your homework, vote your conscious then at the end of the day, I can’t complain. But if you simply pull the party lever, you haven’t taken advantage of one of the greatest privileges we have as Americans.