On November 6, all registered voters will have a chance to affect the outcome of local, statewide, and national races in our country. This article is not an appeal to “get out and vote”. This is an appeal to citizens to be aware of who, and what you are voting for. Over the past few decades, many changes have occurred in our country. Do these changes reflect your personal values?

I was going to attempt to summarize issues such as the economy, energy policies, marriage, and taxes, but I find it impossible to do so without reflecting my own values, which I realize may not be the same as all our readers’. So I will urge each of you who have access to the Internet to search for and read the Platforms of both the Republican and Democratic parties. (Please be aware that many web sites purporting to explain one party’s stances on issues are actually being posted by agents of the opposite party.)

You cannot find out all you need to know by watching the news or reading the papers, or even watching the debates. You must see from their own platforms to what values each is committed.
You may have to read carefully to distinguish high sounding rhetoric from what is actually being said, and you will have to translate general statements into the specific issues we face today,  but you will find out there which platform comes closest to your own values. Whichever that is, is the party and the candidate for which you should vote.

Please check these out for yourself and, additionally, do all you can to educate yourself on the issues. The future of our country depends upon how you vote.

The Lighter Side of Politics

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
-Henry Cate, VII

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -Aesop

If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to got to heaven.
-Will Rogers

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. -Plato

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
-Nikita Khrushchev

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it. -Clarence Darrow

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. -Author Unknown

Politicians are people who, when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. -John Quinton

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. -Oscar Ameringer

I offer my opponents a bargain; if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
-Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
-Texas Guinan

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
-Gore Vidal

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
-Charles deGaulle

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.
-Doug Larson