If you vote angry, you’re voting wrong.
This country needs a marriage counselor. Not for the fabricated “war on marriage” that has convinced a large number of people if a gay couple has equal rights then that will magically destroy their own rights… no. The USA needs a marriage counselor because every night for the last decade we’ve gone to bed angry. It needs to stop. Both sides need to stop the intentional polarization as a rallying point for their base fundraising tactics.
Going to bed angry leads to really, really bad politics, a poorly-informed electorate, and bad really voting decisions. Angry voting has lead us to the current state of politics where holding the country hostage as an absolutist temper tantrum is the norm.
When you’re angry, for example, you tend to flip off (give an angry birdie before it became an iPhone app) the aggressive drivers around you on the freeway.
When you’re angry, your voice becomes higher in pitch and you make fast, jerky movements. You flush, adrenaline shoots into your system – and with all the physical fight and flight reactions happening in your body, you tend to say and do really stupid things. Anger makes people dumb, irresponsible, and detached from logic.
So why in the world would it ever be OK to vote angry? We all keep ourselves in check with our friends and family if we’re angry… because we know we’re stupid when we’re angry! But voting… for some reason we think it’s OK to vote angry. Makes no sense (what in politics does?).
We’ve all heard talk since the end of president George W. Bush’s tenure that elections are “a referendum” on the current administration or Congress. Negative campaigning has increased exponentially since W’s first term. They do it because it works, it’s born of the Souther Strategy, but all it does is create more factions and make it more difficult to do anything. Sure, if might get your candidate elected, but then he or she can’t do anything once they get into office because you polarized everyone so much during the campaign. Winning better well be everything, because you sure as hell won’t get anything done afterwards.
We need to break the negative election cycle. Only voters can do it, because the courts saw to it that there’s so much money in elections now that the politicians will never do it themselves.
Voting because you’re afraid, while not ideal, is at least a bit more acceptable than voting because you’re angry. (Anger makes you stupid, keep reminding yourself that.) If you are afraid of the policies that someone will put into place if they are in office, then voting against them is OK. But if you’re ANGRY at that person, then you need to take a big step back, breathe for awhile, watch news on channels you normally do not so you can get some new perspectives / opinions, and then sit down to think about it again.
If you’re afraid because of the words of someone who is angry… then that’s not OK. Do your research first. We all say things that we don’t mean when we’re angry… even paid personalities on cable tv channels.
Get Smart. Vote Smart.
It will most likely never get to the point where voting smart is the norm in this country’s politics. Smart doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker, and smart doesn’t raise as much money – fear and anger are far more effective for tasks. Too much money in politics, too much religion in politics, too many deep seeded uncertainties about “the other” that we’ll most likely never get over because after all, we’re human and humans are generally skittish animals who horde food. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t take some steps in the right direction where voters actually educate themselves beyond watching their one favorite cable news channel (if they watch news at all, which is also declining).
But it’s up to each individual person to know if you’re angry or not. Acknowledge it, and see it for what it is, count to ten, then educate yourself 10-times over about the issue that’s making you angry. Ask yourself why are you angry? Who made you angry. That’s an important one: Who really made you angry? The politician, or someone else sharing their own opinions about that politician? If you read about Washington in the newspaper does it make you as mad as it does if you’re watching Fox and Friends? Why is that, you think?) Have you gotten swept away by other people’s emotions? Do you only use catch phrases about policy, or do you know the policy against which you’re protesting? It’s up to you… time to get smart. If you keep yourself stupid, then stop complaining and shut up because you don’t deserve to participate if you’re not willing to educate yourselves with facts, not fundraising slogans.
