While this can be filed in your "ignore all political pontificating" bins for some and won't necessarily change anyone's mind, I felt the need to say something. Tomorrow is Michigan's primary election. Please, go out and vote. This election cycle has been and promises to be especially disheartening to the majority of Americans who believe in having reasonable discussion about important issues without engaging in name-calling, slander, and fear-mongering. With all of the vitriol out there, it can be easy to decide to throw your hands up and be done with the whole thing. So many of us are fed up with the "system" and the partisanship and dissent, it is tempting to disengage or become jaded; I urge you to fight the system a different way.
Fight the system by refusing to let media and candidates and others around you bait you into finger-pointing and fear-mongering. The world will go on if your favorite candidate loses. Few people in the history of the world have had their mind changed willingly by being shouted at that they are idiots.
Fight the system by refusing to give in to despair that the country and the world are falling to pieces. Jesus promised that life on this earth would be full of "wars and rumors of wars" and things worse (that chapter goes on for 24 more verses before Judgement Day!). Whoever gets chosen as President, it will not usher in the Great Tribulation. God is in control. We all have the ability to impact the election and the world around us in a positive way - even if it seems that we are a lonely rock in a stream going the other direction, know that that rock affects the flow around it.
Fight the system by engaging your friends and neighbors and family members in honest, friendly, caring discussion about issues that matter to you. It is so difficult to be well-informed about everything in life or politics, yet we all assume that we are the experts. Everyone has had different life experiences and exposures to viewpoints that are valuable to hear, even if you don't agree at the outset. However, they will only want to hear your viewpoint if you can humbly and caringly listen to their opinions as well.
Fight the system by making the best informed decision you can - there are great sources of information available on the internet to learn about a candidate's positions and get analysis of their plans as well. If you know someone who doesn't have the ability or access to these things, please endeavor to talk to them about who they're voting for and LISTEN to why they are voting for them. Don't belittle people just because you might disagree - listen to what they have to say, offer any opinions you might have respectfully, and encourage them to make their own decisions.
Fight the system by checking the facts. Spouting rhetoric that appeals to under-informed voters but actually is quite distant from reality is how candidates are driving a lot of things many of us are disgusted with. There are a number of websites that fact-check statements by politicians, my favorite is www.politifact.com, but choose one from a source you trust and evaluate. I made my decision on what candidate I am voting for in large part because I want to be able to trust the statements he/she makes and I want to feel that the truth is important to the President, not just his/her own political power and advantage. See the below snapshots of each candidate's True/False distribution from PolitiFact - while not a complete view of the situation, at least it's something.
Fight the system, most of all, by voting. Your opinion may be a small voice in a hurricane, but recall that the Lord spoke to Elijah not in a great wind, or earthquake, or fire, but in a gentle whisper.
My vote tomorrow will be for John Kasich in the Republican side of the primary. I admire his commitment to standing above the sound and fury of the GOP election cycle thus far and trying to stick to the issues that matter. I support his statements that we need to work together (blue or red) to make any meaningful progress. I support his stance on abortion, limiting the federal government to necessary functions, and striving for balanced budgets. I do not agree with many of the positions he has put forward in their specificity and may indeed not vote in the same way in the general election, but feel that it is more important to make a voice heard in the Republican primary tomorrow than the Democratic one. To my mind, the differences between Bernie and Hillary, while significant, are not as troubling as those between the GOP candidates.
Goodnight and happy voting tomorrow!
Well said, Cyclops.
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