Originally posted by: Syringer
Originally posted by: kranky
If you don't know anything about the issues or the candidates, then just stay home, please.
I work with too many people who puff out their chests with pride for having voted, when they don't have a friggin' clue why they chose certain candidates.
The guy in the next aisle just told me in the break room he voted for the current State rep instead of the chalenger. I asked why, he said because the challenger wants to raise taxes. I asked where he heard that, the answer was in a direct mailing from the current rep.
In fact, the challenger's entire campaign has been about LOWERING taxes. The incumbent studied the challenger's plan, found that it raised taxes for the top 1% of wage earners, then launched a smear campaign saying the guy wants to raise taxes. The challenger's plan would lower taxes for all retirees, and those making less than $80,000 a year.
So I pointed this out to my co-worker, and he got mad at me. Go figure!
Thank goodness, a voice of reasoning. IGNORANT people should NOT vote. If all young people voted Britney Spears would win a race for senate.
There's nothing more annoying than people wanting people to simply vote blindly and without doing any research. What good can possibly be had if 19 year olds were to fill in random bubbles down the ballot?
Listening to information directly from one of the people running which concerns that person's opponent, well, it's going to be suspect. And politics is almost designed to be misleading.
For example, I shall introduce a bill which makes it illegal to kill, bake, and eat baby harp seals. But someone attaches a rider which makes it legal to pan-fry them.
If you vote for the bill, the ads against you say, "Candidate X supports pan-frying baby seals."
If you vote against the bill, because you don't like it in its entirety, the ads against you say, "Candidate X supports baking baby seals."
If, as a voter, your only information source is attack ads, you're going to vote against this candidate because he likes killing baby seals.
If you are fully informed, you're going to know that the law was written poorly, and so the candidate was probably right to vote against it.