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I’ve pledged myself to become a more informed voter. While it doesn’t really matter in the short term at this point, as the California primary has come and gone, with Hillary Clinton as the winner, I think it still does matter. The only issue between the candidates that I’ve focused on is health care, since that is an issue that is very important to me, being a person who can’t afford health care.
Instead of wasting time on CNN, Facebook, Myspace and Gamespot, which are my most frequently visited sites, I’m going to spend some time going through the websites of the presidential candidates to familiarize myself with their stances on the different issues and then verify certain things on FactCheck.org. This way I’m not one of the idiots who just says they voted for a certain candidate because they liked him or her, which I actually am at this point. Actually that’s not entirely true. I picked Obama over Clinton because of his stance on health care, and because of Hillary Clinton’s stance on video games. And I’m not just doing this for the Democratic nominees, but for the Republicans as well. Because if I don’t like the Democratic nominee, my vote is going to the Republican side this time around.
People naturally assume I’m a Democrat, since I take a fairly vocal liberal stance on certain things, but I’m actually not affiliated with any political party. That’s a fact I tend to forget sometimes, praising the liberal Democrats, and cursing the conservative Republicans. But as I really examine my views on things, I’m finding that I’m liberal on certain issues and conservative on other things. Does that make me a moderate? No. That’s just sticking another label on something that shouldn’t be labeled.
On a side note, I would do this research for the Independent candidates, but to be realistic they haven’t gotten any media coverage and don’t stand a chance of becoming president. A friend and I were talking last night and we agreed that when Ross Perot was the Independent party’s front runner, people weren’t ready for that kind of change. At this point in time, it’s become clear that people are ready for change, but they’re just not sure what kind of change they want yet. Maybe I’ll do it anyway just so I’m in the know.
Anyway, on the agenda today is familiarizing myself with Obama’s politics beyond health care. I’ll let you know how it goes.
