I initially wrote this back in 2018 or so, but I believe it
bears repeating.
Who to support with your vote? It has to be more than
media, mailings and the voter pamphlet (Method)
It is my sincerest hope that anyone reading this
understands the importance of their vote.
I, for one, want EVERY legal American Citizen to vote as
long as you know both what you're voting for... and when it comes to
candidates, WHO you're voting for.
If you're an American, non-felon citizen, you have the
privilege of voting. And, while I get that the left is doing their best to
eradicate that privilege through allowing non-citizens and illegal aliens to
vote, I'm hoping that such is an aberration and that the courts... and/or the
Fed... will eventually crack down on rogue municipalities enabling the
pollution of the voter pool.
Meanwhile, when you're staring at your ballot, and you're
about to fill it out, why are you doing that?
Politics has a variety of problems today as it's had since
the art began.
Sadly, my 30 years or so in politics has shown that most of
the political stereotypes are 100% on target.
Lies, manipulation, exaggeration, backstabbing,
assassination... that's how the game is played.
Double standards abound where one is condemned for doing
something while another is lionized for doing the exact, same, thing.
An embarrassingly biased and corrupt media has long since
ceased being the purveyors of news as opposed to the makers of news. Reporters
no longer even try to hide the fact that they've sold out. In the last
presidential campaign, reporters actually coordinated their news coverage with
the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
Biases abound in the media world, but they rarely, if ever,
acknowledge those biases so they want you to believe their opinion... on
anything... is more valuable than yours.
It isn't.
Reporters here locally are screened for bias. A former
reporter for the democratian told me years ago that the only bias they could
show was leftist and that they had to remember who they worked for at all
times.
Well, yeah, that figures.
But when your news is filtered by a political bias... how
can the news you're getting be depended on to form YOUR opinions?
Leftist politicians will be supported by a leftist media.
Right side politicians will be vilified, attacked and beaten to a pulp, you
name it. Who can forget the democratian endorsing a leftist for the 18th
District Senate seat?
In 2000 they wrote of democrat challenger Lou Peterson,
“although sincere and well-intentioned, (he, Peterson) lacks even a rudimentary
understanding of the important policy questions for Southwest Washington and
the state. About the only attribute in his favor is the fact that he’s not Don
Benton. And on that admittedly flimsy basis, we endorse Peterson.”
Lesson? Don't form any position based entirely on what a
newspaper or TV news or internet source tells you.
And it happens on both sides: Leftist propaganda mills like
the Daily Kos have counter-balanced sites like World News Daily. Both are part
of the swamp, and both need to be drained generally and ignored particularly.
I refuse to kill off brain cells reading either.
Another source of information are the tree-killing wastes
of money known as mailers.
Candidates use mailers basically for 3 purposes: increase
name familiarity, comparisons between candidates and attack ads.
The problem? The main purpose of all mailers, on the off
chance they're actually read (most aren't) is to get the reader to think or
believe what the sender wants.
The main problem for the voter is that these mailers look
great and contain a great many words.... that typically say absolutely
nothing... or absolutely nothing of importance.
The possible exception may be the comparison piece...
presuming the comparisons are factual. And how is the reader supposed to know
that?
Lesson? Mailers at best are merely a start of the
discussion. Don't take them at face value.
As many as a third of voters who actually vote limit their
research to what happens to be in the voter's pamphlet.
Well, who do you think wrote that stuff? How do you think
it got put in there?
Major candidates have professionals write their voter
pamphlet descriptions. They know the value of these snippets because they know
the numbers of voters who depend on these fictions is huge.
These short stories, limited by rule to certain sizes
depending on the office... 100 words, 200... 300... have the same purpose as
every other political communication: to convince you to fork over your vote.
They rarely include the candidate taking responsibilities
for their failures, their betrayals, and their sellouts.
They really do promise the moon plus $2 to get your vote...
and then, all too frequently... those we believed in simply ignore their
promises and pledges and do whatever their special interest masters tell them
to do.
And in the case of Clark County, Washington State?
Those betrayals have cost... and are costing.... the people
of this community hundreds of millions of dollars.
We were told one thing... promised in writing, in fact...
and delivered... without asking.... another.
The voter's pamphlet is full of promises... full of
marketing and all too often, full of lies.
I get that for many, this kind of news is discouraging. You
may not have even considered these perspectives. You may be asking yourself, if
I don't make a decision based on this... what do I use?
Well, that depends.
What's important to you?
If truth is important to you, then vote against a candidate
or incumbent who has lied. Many have. And many will continue to lie for the
simple fact that all too often, those who lie to us... to get elected, to stay
elected, or to get some bill passed... are rarely held accountable for their
lies.
If truth is important to you, then vote against initiatives
or referenda where the proponents lie.
That's difficult, given few know all of the information.
That's where common sense comes in.
Politics is little different from all other forms of sales
when it comes right down to it. Those who want something from you, in this
case, your vote; are more than willing to lie, exaggerate, cheat or steal to
get it.
 |
| Screen capture from the pro pot initiative |
Yes, that sounded impressive. TOO impressive.
It was a rather simple matter of dividing the number of people in this state into the fictional number proponents used to lie this initiative into being. At about 7 million men, women and children, that number worked out to require that each of those people purchase enough pot to generate around $83 each in taxes.
That number was absurd on its face.
Jails are just as full. Drug enforcement is just as
expensive. A thriving underground pot economy continues unabated. Our taxes were
just jacked up to pay for the teacher's scam of McCleary and that means,
simply, that none of the promises of the pot initiative have been true.
This is not to rant against the pot initiative. It is merely an illustration of
how far those who support an issue, a project, a law or a candidate will go to
get them passed or to get elected.
If taxes are important to you, and a candidate either
refuses to tell you if they'll raise taxes or fees, refuses to tell you if
they'll require a referendum for tax or fee increases; or if, like Ann
"Gas Tax" Rivers, they've told you one thing in the past (they'll
oppose gas tax and tab fee increases) only to vote for those increases once
they were elected, then either vote against them... or know going in that
you're voting for a liar.
Efforts will be made to play you. And that's why it's so
important to do your own research.
Don't rely on marketing to make your choices for you. Rise
to the occasion. Do the work.
Even I've been fooled... badly... so remember: like every
other sale in life, if it sounds too good to be true?
It likely is.
