Don’t Vote Personalities, Vote Objectives

When it comes to American politics these days, I am not seeing a lot of happy faces. We all know why — things aren’t working as they are supposed to. Our government, which was the envy of the world, is not functioning well and is spending far too much; people can’t find work and money is tight, etc.
If our problems today bring frowns to our faces, think how people must have felt during the time of our Civil War. We were killing one another by the hundreds of thousands, and we did not know if the nation would even stay together. The troubles we faced back then make our current ones seem small indeed.
Despite those huge problems, we not only pulled through, we went on to thrive like never before. If we had never faced big problems, we might be now questioning if we are capable of overcoming our current ones. But since we have faced and conquered much larger issues, we can certainly overcome our current divisions.
An ongoing complaint I frequently hear is that it makes no difference whom we elect; they don’t listen to us and they do whatever they want. But is that really true? My experience at this newspaper makes me believe otherwise. When there is a negative word in a Spout Off, a letter to the editor, a news story or a column, we hear about it immediately.
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We have an election upcoming,
and now is the time to vent our frustrations
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The politicians are extremely responsive to bad press because they, in fact, do care about your opinion of them. As just one example, I recall one time I said something critical about Sen. Robert Menendez in my column and I heard immediately from his office looking for ways to put their view before the public.
We have an election upcoming, and now is the time to vent our frustrations. We all receive the candidates’ mailings, and read their thoughts in the papers. We should have our issues top of mind when we consider the candidates. May I propose a short checklist of things we might have in mind before we vote?
The Quality of the Candidate
• The candidate’s integrity
• The candidate’s philosophy on the role of government
• His/her accomplishments in life (Has he/she demonstrated how to get things done?)
• His or her plans if elected (If they haven’t articulated their overall objectives prior to taking office, chances are almost nil they will develop them later.)
Let me add something about plans. Plans are what impressed me about Chris Christie. Our state was getting into deeper and deeper problems no matter who was elected governor, but when he ran, he published his “88 Ways Chris Christie Will Fix New Jersey.” That told me that he looked at the problems and knew what he was going to do when in office.
The Candidate’s Goals
• Taxes and the role of government: Does he/she have specific plans to reduce them, such as via consolidating services?
When a group of us started Cape Issues, we asked the public, “What is the area of largest concern to you?” Your answer was: high taxes.
Government is not the answer to most of our problems. Government did not make America and government won’t save us. We need representatives that fundamentally understand that. If they are looking to solve problems through more government, we need to elect someone else. They need to understand how to work with the private sector to accomplish things.
Sustaining and Creating Jobs
• Complete Route 55
We know we are losing population; smaller population means fewer jobs for locals. One way we drive people away is by making it frustrating to drive here: Does the candidate have a plan to make Route 55 a reality?
• To encourage people to spend more time here, the super-fast Internet service other cities are installing would enhance our desirability.
We are capable people and we can make our state and nation run well if we take our role as voters seriously. Our active role encourages government to be our partners, not our bosses, nor our adversaries.
How do the candidates propose to further this?
Bible verse:
A good man has firm footing, but a crook will slip and fall.
Proverbs 10:9 LB