Campfyre Stories

They keep saying "This is the most important election of your life," and they’re not wrong.

Candidates are telling us that they are a catalyst for "Change" and that they are giving us "Hope".  They want to reclaim their respective parties and get back to the roots of what they used to mean.

And how gullible are we?  How badly do we want to no longer live in FEAR of unnamed enemies and untold dangers?

We may get record high voter turnout this year, but that honestly concerns me, since I don’t think that people are actually voting for the candidate who best represents them.  This is all about image and charisma and style and that’s not the criteria we should be using this time around.

I’m going to tell you a couple of truths and let you in on some things that are, but shouldn’t be secrets.

EVERY election is the most important election of your life.  If you get it wrong, you’ll be screwed for 4 years.  If you get it right, then maybe things will be good for 4 years, but EVERY election is the most important one.  This is the most important election SO FAR.  2012 will become the most important election, then 2016.  Once it’s done, it’s done and, immediately, the next election is the most important election of your life.

That said, there’s only one way to get it "right" and that isn’t just to vote, and certainly not for someone who is attractive or who plucks your heartstrings when s/he speaks.  You should vote for the person who is going to make YOUR life better.  What does that mean?  I don’t know.  I don’t know you the way you know yourself and the things that would make my life better, or my child’s life better may not be the same as the answers you have.

If you’re not going to go out there and learn about the person you think you like, I’d rather you stay home on primary and election days.  Really.  Because this is the most important election of your life…  so far…  and I’d prefer that you know who and what you’re voting for instead of pretending that these people are movie stars and their vote counts are on par with box office receipts, that their delegates are going to garner them an Oscar instead of the highest office in the COUNTRY.

We get change NO MATTER WHAT.  It doesn’t matter who wins this election, we will get change.  Not just from whatever administration we wind up having, but from the entire world.  Living a life that is unchanging and static isn’t really possible.  You can try, but you will fail and you’ll wind up being bitter and angry because you can’t stop the rest of the world from changing around you.

Any single candidate who gets elected will be a different person than the president we have now.  He (or she) will make different decisions and have different perspectives and different priorities.  Things will change whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican.  Nothing stays the same…  The candidates who are promising change are making the emptiest promise (though the easiest to keep) that can possibly be make.  Change is a given, so what are you REALLY going to do for me?

And what about hope?  Do you need a politician to give you hope, really?  If you don’t have hope and you believe that the process is so broken that it cannot be salvaged, then you shouldn’t be supporting an establishment candidate.  You shouldn’t be supporting a career politician.  You should be working to make a real change in how the process works, whether it’s supporting a third-party candidate or pushing legislative change or constitutional amendment. 

Hope is fleeting.  What do you hope for?  What is it that you wish for and anticipate and, tell me, because few people can, is the person (whoever that may be) that you’re rallying around going to give you what YOU want?  It all comes down to getting informed.

Let’s say that one candidate has inspired you to believe in the election process again.  That’s wonderful!  Now go and find out EXACTLY what that candidate believes in…  and compare it to what the other candidates believe in.  Then you can decide who actually represents you.  You simply cannot vote for someone based on celebrity or charisma and think that you are somehow participating in the political process.  You’re not.  You are, in fact, making it worse if you don’t take the time to vote your principles.

We’re all caught up in the glamour and the feuds and the Hollywoodization of the entire political sphere.  McCain and Romney are lashing out at each other in attack ads.  Obama and Clinton are fighting about race politics.  THIS DOESN’T MATTER, PEOPLE.  This is the same pablum as Anna Nicole Smith’s death and Paris Hilton’s jail stint and Brittany Spears’ hospitalization.  It’s completely meaningless and only serves as a distraction from the things that are actually important to YOUR daily life.

These are the questions you should be asking, in regards to every candidate:

What are the issues that are important to me, and do any of the candidates agree with me on all of them?

Do I care about the legacy that my generation is leaving to successive generations?  What needs to be done to make the world a better place for them?

We’re entering a recession, what do the candidates intend to do to strengthen the dollar?

The entire world is in flux right now.  Should we be monitoring activities overseas?  If so, to what degree?  Where should the focus lie, in the US or abroad?  In what proportions?  Which candidates are best equipped to implement the policies and changes both in and out of the country?

It doesn’t matter who you support if you can’t articulate WHY.  It doesn’t even matter *that* you support someone if the only reasons are because they have charmed you or appeal to you aesthetically.

Look, we all need to accept that we should be voting for the best possible candidate.  We all should be trying to choose someone who represents what we believe most strongly in.  Buzz words are meaningless.  Constitution or Change or Hope or Ready or whatever…  none of these mean a thing in real terms. 

Look at the voting records.  Look at the work that each person has done outside of politics.  Look at the speeches and the debates and really listen to what’s being said.  Listen to the criticisms that other people have and find out if they’re valid concerns.  Determine if the negatives are spun in the sense of "Well what s/he meant when s/he said that was…" because spin generally doesn’t equal belief.

Stop.  Think.  Get informed.

Because this is the most important election of your life…  until next time.  And this change will last forever…  until it’s undone in 4 years.