How To Vote

As always, I am fascinated by the way we arrive at decisions. Especially how we decide who (whom?) to vote for. What is your primary criteria? Do you vote for party first? Or are you truly independent and ignore party designation?

We often use name recognition in our selection... which gives the incumbent a huge advantage. And, sometimes, an advantage to the more famous of the candidates. Like Clinton or Trump. Sometimes it works against the candidate, like Jeb Bush, where the family name has been successfully smeared. But that never happened to the Kennedys; regardless of the scandals tied to the name. Many of today's voters are too young to remember what happened in the 90's so they rely on emotion and what they are told by others whom they hold in some kind of esteem.

But, I think, they shouldn't. They should approach each election as if they know nothing about the candidates. They should ignore all the rhetoric, the promises, the propaganda and do research on their own. Even then they will be overwhelmed by the hype and packaging of the candidates.

I heard something interesting yesterday... Alan Colmes was talking about Hillary Clinton and was saying that she may sound like a populist but we don't know that she will behave like one as president. And that is one of the problems in deciding who to vote for. Most candidates make great promises about what they will do once elected but, as we know, these are often empty promises they have no real intention of fulfilling.

Could Trump build that wall on our southern border... and would it make a difference?

Could any candidate deliver on the promises, even some of them?