If you're worried about not having a job after college, then do something about it. If you think the economy is in the tank, do something about it. If you want an exit strategy for Iraq, universal health care, college tuition or better schools, do something about it and vote for the next president. If only they'd let us know where they stand on those issues.
Right now, all potential voters are being forcibly steered around the real issues by a dog and pony show of negative campaigning. Who cares about what John Kerry or George Bush did or didn't do decades ago in Vietnam and Alabama. Even the most copious amounts of medals pinned to a soldier's uniform won't prepare them for the presidency.
If the same amount of money was dumped into actually educating the populous on the issues as is spent on useless finger-pointing ads, then people might actually be compelled to vote. People would begin to hold intelligent political debates. The world would turn upside-down. And we might have a better, more representative democracy.
The American voter is not stupid. If politicians stopped banging the drum of mindless patriotism for one minute and really told voters who they were, people might actually feel engaged by a democracy that currently tends to be condescending and disappointing.
Political ideologies tell voters virtually nothing about the future performance of candidates. War records cannot be trusted either - being able to fire a gun, fly a plane or man a tank doesn't spell political competency. Otherwise every soldier would graduate into politics, and we all know that doesn't happen.
Where do they actually stand - pointing to opponents, saying "I'll do the exact opposite of that guy" doesn't cut it. Running on a platform of being diametrically opposite - despite glaring similarities - doesn't rectify the problem, either. We are yet to see the plans for actually making America a better, safer, more prosperous and democratic country from either candidate.
The base of our information about Bush is that he can't run on his record as president. On the other hand, Kerry is running a campaign based on an incumbent's shortcomings - a list's worth, based on campaign promises from the 2000 race. The smartest way to counter that misgiving, though, does not include reiterating the point. Both candidates - stop with the war records, silence your "(Blank) for Truth" groups and actually campaign to be the next president of the United States.
Waiting for the presidential debates to announce political plans should not be an option. We should demand to know what we're actually voting for when we cast our ballot for one candidate or another.
What voters need to do is weed out the trash and focus on what will directly benefit them. Learn about issues, research candidates and figure out who fits your vision of America - just be careful to get past the smokescreen of political rhetoric and find out what the campaign platforms really are.
