5 Ways to Vote for Your Own Good

Steps you can take to maximize the potential for government for the people

Voting season is upon us, with the first primaries having taken place yesterday, August 2. Depending on your preferences, the results could be considered mixed, good, or bad.

I want to look at it a different way. What if your vote could help you elect someone who would look out for your and your neighbors’ interests, rather than outsiders?

I think there are steps you can take to help that become a reality, though that doesn’t make it any less difficult.

Political advertising is about dark money and foreign money, about oligarchic control. It’s ads that contain half-truths, untruths, and outright lies. It’s about smearing the other candidate(s) rather than talking about what they will actually do for you.

This includes any social media postings. As has been shown in the past, these are frequently bot-driven, aiming to shape your view of a race based on what someone else wants.

Ignore it. Shut it out. Don’t even look at it.

If you can find out who’s financing the candidate, you will see who will benefit from their representation. If they are mostly from small donors, they will work for the people (assuming the people are the small donors).

If they are financed by super PACs, billionaires, or even their own money, they will be beholden to the rich (or to themselves and what they believe in).

They won’t get my vote. I’m looking for someone whose donors are so numerous that they will represent the greater number of people.

Find unbiased reporting on a candidate’s positions. If you have a League of Women’s Voters report, it will typically list the stances of the candidates without comment.

Is the candidate a positive or negative one?

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