That is the question I receive closer to every election day. My friends, family, acquaintances ask me for my opinion. The thing is that I rarely have an answer for them. I can provide quite cogent explanations for who I will be voting for, but I don't know who YOU should vote for.
Each year individuals are surprised by what follows their uttering of that question. I ask "What are your most important values?" "How do you judge people, by past performance or by what they say?" "How do you think people make decisions; by deeply held values or by incentives and disincentives?"
They are often surprised that I don't push a particular candidate. They are also surprised that I don't strategize much; by that I mean, I don't choose a candidate based on "viability" or campaign slogans or fundraising ability. I choose candidates whose priorities are similar to mine.
Here is the thing, I am old and I am deeply concerned about my legacy on this earth. I want to know that when I die, I did everything in my power to change the world into one that I believe to be fairer. I will have failed at life if I didn't practice my values. So I stopped strategizing-because all that means is that I will be choosing candidates based on what I think are other people's values and not my own. I also realized after many years that the only certainty in politics is that people with my values will not win if I don't support them. At my age I also want to see how much you have walked the talk, not just how loudly you have talked the talk.
In other words, I don't know who you should vote for. Only YOU could know that because only YOU know what your values are, and what you would like your legacy to be.
Each year individuals are surprised by what follows their uttering of that question. I ask "What are your most important values?" "How do you judge people, by past performance or by what they say?" "How do you think people make decisions; by deeply held values or by incentives and disincentives?"
They are often surprised that I don't push a particular candidate. They are also surprised that I don't strategize much; by that I mean, I don't choose a candidate based on "viability" or campaign slogans or fundraising ability. I choose candidates whose priorities are similar to mine.
Here is the thing, I am old and I am deeply concerned about my legacy on this earth. I want to know that when I die, I did everything in my power to change the world into one that I believe to be fairer. I will have failed at life if I didn't practice my values. So I stopped strategizing-because all that means is that I will be choosing candidates based on what I think are other people's values and not my own. I also realized after many years that the only certainty in politics is that people with my values will not win if I don't support them. At my age I also want to see how much you have walked the talk, not just how loudly you have talked the talk.
In other words, I don't know who you should vote for. Only YOU could know that because only YOU know what your values are, and what you would like your legacy to be.
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