Election Day
The United States presidential election is coming up in a few weeks and I have two requests for you: be civil and vote.
People get heated with politics. I get it. As citizens of the United States, we are very passionate about our country and its leadership. And we should be! That’s the beauty of democracy. We all have a say in who our duly elected government officials will be. It’s something to celebrate, and I believe it is our duty as citizens to engage that right and privilege.
We are going to occasionally disagree with others about most things, especially with politics. Even if we want the same candidate, we may have disagreements about policy. That’s fine! The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same, acted the same, and voted the same. HOWEVER, we do not have to let those disagreements get in the way of us being decent and polite to one another.
Let’s make a concerted effort to be civil with each other. Every citizen in this great country is entitled to their vote just as much as you are. If they want to vote for a candidate that you hate, they can do that. If they want to “throw their vote away” on a third party or independent candidate, again, they’re more than welcome to. You don’t have to like how they cast their vote to respect that it is their right to do so.
If you can’t politely discuss politics and candidates with others, just don’t do it. You can exit the situation, you can change topics, you can do any number of things that aren't getting in a heated argument over political affiliation. If you know you’re in the company of people who DO get heated about politics, don’t bring it up. This isn’t rocket science.
For the evangelicals, “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Rom. 14:13). I would argue it is objectively evil for you to intentionally bring up a topic that you know would put your brother into an aggravated mental state. Be careful who you decide to talk politics with, and err on the side of just NOT talking about it. It isn’t hard.
Now that we’ve got the “be civil” part out of the way, go vote. Vote for whomever you want, for whatever reason you want. Like Harris because she’s a woman? Do your thing. Want Trump because gas was cheaper in 2018? Who am I to explain that the president doesn’t set gas prices? You reason can be completely idiotic to me, but it ain’t my vote. It’s yours, use it how you want.
Make sure your voter registration is up to date. Make sure you know where your voting location is. Don’t wait until election day to figure out that you never updated your address and your voting precinct is somewhere hours away from where you live.
Beyond just casting your vote, I would hope that you do some research and make an INFORMED vote. I never vote straight-ticket, and I personally wish that wasn’t even an option on ballots. You should have to intentionally and deliberately select a particular candidate for every office up for election. Even if you just look for the red R or blue D, it should be required that you manually select one person for each category.
Do a little research on candidates in your district. By now, we all have a pretty good idea of what the options are for president. That’s not the only office on the ballot, though. Depending on your state and county, there are plenty of other offices up for election. Figure out who’s running and take a look into their policies. See if they accomplished what they said they would do the last time they were elected. Incumbents often stay elected simply because constituents haven’t bothered investigating what they actually did in office.
Vote in person on election day. Vote early. Vote by mail. Vote by some other means that I didn’t realize was an option, just as long as you use your OWN vote and ONLY your vote. Don’t use your dead grandfather’s vote because he explicitly said he wanted Lindsey Graham and didn’t care about anybody else on the ballot. As long as you are using your own vote in a legitimate fashion, I couldn’t care less HOW you actually cast it.
In less than a month, the election will be over and we will have definitive voting results. I sincerely hope that we can all accept those results whether your preferred candidate won or lost. We’ll have another four years before we have to deal with this nonsense again, and I hope that we can enjoy that time instead of complaining on and on about how an election turned out. Y’all be nice to each other, please.
People get heated with politics. I get it. As citizens of the United States, we are very passionate about our country and its leadership. And we should be! That’s the beauty of democracy. We all have a say in who our duly elected government officials will be. It’s something to celebrate, and I believe it is our duty as citizens to engage that right and privilege.
We are going to occasionally disagree with others about most things, especially with politics. Even if we want the same candidate, we may have disagreements about policy. That’s fine! The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same, acted the same, and voted the same. HOWEVER, we do not have to let those disagreements get in the way of us being decent and polite to one another.
Let’s make a concerted effort to be civil with each other. Every citizen in this great country is entitled to their vote just as much as you are. If they want to vote for a candidate that you hate, they can do that. If they want to “throw their vote away” on a third party or independent candidate, again, they’re more than welcome to. You don’t have to like how they cast their vote to respect that it is their right to do so.
If you can’t politely discuss politics and candidates with others, just don’t do it. You can exit the situation, you can change topics, you can do any number of things that aren't getting in a heated argument over political affiliation. If you know you’re in the company of people who DO get heated about politics, don’t bring it up. This isn’t rocket science.
For the evangelicals, “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Rom. 14:13). I would argue it is objectively evil for you to intentionally bring up a topic that you know would put your brother into an aggravated mental state. Be careful who you decide to talk politics with, and err on the side of just NOT talking about it. It isn’t hard.
Now that we’ve got the “be civil” part out of the way, go vote. Vote for whomever you want, for whatever reason you want. Like Harris because she’s a woman? Do your thing. Want Trump because gas was cheaper in 2018? Who am I to explain that the president doesn’t set gas prices? You reason can be completely idiotic to me, but it ain’t my vote. It’s yours, use it how you want.
Make sure your voter registration is up to date. Make sure you know where your voting location is. Don’t wait until election day to figure out that you never updated your address and your voting precinct is somewhere hours away from where you live.
Beyond just casting your vote, I would hope that you do some research and make an INFORMED vote. I never vote straight-ticket, and I personally wish that wasn’t even an option on ballots. You should have to intentionally and deliberately select a particular candidate for every office up for election. Even if you just look for the red R or blue D, it should be required that you manually select one person for each category.
Do a little research on candidates in your district. By now, we all have a pretty good idea of what the options are for president. That’s not the only office on the ballot, though. Depending on your state and county, there are plenty of other offices up for election. Figure out who’s running and take a look into their policies. See if they accomplished what they said they would do the last time they were elected. Incumbents often stay elected simply because constituents haven’t bothered investigating what they actually did in office.
Vote in person on election day. Vote early. Vote by mail. Vote by some other means that I didn’t realize was an option, just as long as you use your OWN vote and ONLY your vote. Don’t use your dead grandfather’s vote because he explicitly said he wanted Lindsey Graham and didn’t care about anybody else on the ballot. As long as you are using your own vote in a legitimate fashion, I couldn’t care less HOW you actually cast it.
In less than a month, the election will be over and we will have definitive voting results. I sincerely hope that we can all accept those results whether your preferred candidate won or lost. We’ll have another four years before we have to deal with this nonsense again, and I hope that we can enjoy that time instead of complaining on and on about how an election turned out. Y’all be nice to each other, please.
Comments
Post a Comment