Post for all: What isues will determine your vote?

[Vicks]

I actually wrote what issues are important to me on another thread but I figure: "hey an election is coming up so why not find out why people vote for who they do"

So what issues will determine who you vote for? And (Non-US Fishies, what issues determine who you would vote for in an election)

So here is my list:

:bullet Health Care reform. Not necessarily national health care, but some sort of a safety net, for people who lose their job, other than COBRA, and something to cover at least the basics for all children.

:bullet Gun Control - hate the ease in which people can get guns.

:bullet Child Welfare - more stream linning, and less time spent in fostercare.

:bullet Education - where I feel the federal government has way way to much influence.

:bullet National Service, or tax brakes and/or incentives to get people to volunteer

:bullet A more concrete emphasis, on working with the UN.

:bullet More involvement in preventing humanitarinne crisises such as the Sudan.

Those are just some of the issues, that will win my vote.

Vicks

[Sylphlover]

Hey Vicks:

Just wondering if you took the AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SELECTOR at

http://selectsmart.com/PRESIDENT/

Basically they cover the issues that are important to me.

[Kensington]

Cool post, Vicks!

:usa Health care issues, including insurance for all

:usa Right to Choose

:usa Gun Control

:usa Position on War in Iraq

:usa AIDS epidemic

:usa Ability to distinguish between the weekend pot smoker & someone using crime to support a violent drug habit

:usa Making America inclusive for ALL, not just certain groups

[IthinkIcan]

I found selectsmart's results interesting: sixty-three percent Republican/Bush, forty-two percent Democrat/Kerry. Not completely unexpected. I do expect that many others would fall much more on one side or the other. I'll list the beliefs that created this later.

[ribbon]

I'm copying my response from the other thread to be part of the discusssion.


I vote for a candidate that espouses the same social values that I do, for issues that effect me and those I care about. Because GWBII is trying to take away so many civil rights, the so called hot button issues are important to me. In reality, if Kerry/Edwards are elected and if the congress remains republican controlled, there might not be a lot that can be done to change.
My list includes (in no particular order):

:bullet Pro choice including late term termination
:bullet Pro stem cell reseach
:bullet Anti gun rights
:bullet Pro gay marriage
:bullet Pro health care and medical research
:bullet Tax reform targetting middle and lower income brackets
:bullet Social Security and medicare solvency
:bullet Welfare to work programs
:bullet Pro working WITH the rest of the world on international issues
:bullet Prison reformed geared at treatment and rehabilitation
:bullet Nominating liberals to the supreme court

If I was happier with the current administration, the hot button issues would be less important to me.

:hugonslyph:hugoff I love that website.

My first is no one (or me, I suppose) :winky.

Nader
Cobb
Brown
Kerry
Edwards
Gephart
Dean


I find that interesting because I would have chosen Dean, Edwards, Kerry in that order and believe it or not, GWB wasn't last on the list :muhaha.

[bellydancer]

I agree with Ribbon on a lot of things.
My biggest issues are:
:stars civil rights, including the right to check books out of the library without some government agency breathing down your neck and the right for two people with matching reproductive systems to marry one another.
:stars environmental protection, which has been a joke for the past several years
:stars reproductive freedom
:stars someone who won't get us into an unjust war
:stars basic education and basic health care for all people

[SanFran]

Great idea for a post! I checked out that website, and it said Cobb was my ideal vote, followed by Nadar. Like, Ribbon, I was surprised bush made my list, albeit number sixteen. :cute

The issues important to me are:

:usa abortion rights
:usa assistance to minorities and lower income civillians
:usa Environmental and animal legislation
:usa gun control (am against gun rights)
:usa end of occupation of Iraq
:usa universal health care

I'm sure there are more, but those are the major ones.

[Marigold]

I agree w/alot people have written here such as

-health care
-environmental concerns
-ending the Iraqi disaster
and so forth.

Basically, I want Bush out. After seeing "Fahrenheit Nine/Eleven", I'm even more motivated to vote against him - though I would have any way.

The way he highjacked the Florida election - well, I feel it's payback time.

However, if the Kerry wins, it's not going to be because of manipulation of the votes of the American people - it's going to be because we Want a change.
-Marigold:sun

[rosysunset]

:flower ENVIRONMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:flower Getting out of Irag
:flower International relations

[IthinkIcan]

In no particular order:
:usa Offering up option of private investment of at least portion of SS funds. Private business owners pay fifteen percent of their income into social security and may never see a dime of it! Those in the public sector pay seven.five percent.

:usa Universal health care with medication and mental health parity. Don't need carryover of private system flaws in these areas. It would need to be BETTER than the Medicaid system. As a healthcare professional I have been incensed to see people denied medications they need with the "option" of a more affordable substitute. They may be similar, but they don't always work the same and this should be left up to the discretion of the healthcare provider.

:usa Improving Medicaid/Medicare system. See immediately above. Necessary drugs and services are often denied. It is difficult to find providers. This situation needs attention. Interestingly, so y'all know, I have commercial insurance. I just care.

:usa Decreasing abortion as a birth control method. I don't want to see it outlawed completely. Abolishing late-term, especially partial-birth, abortions. These reallllllly rub me the wrong way. I fought to keep my daughter in utero but lost the battle. Thankfully it was six weeks after it started. Yet, it was a mere one week after the present cut-off for late-term abortion. The only difference for the baby during this time-frame, the five weeks, would have been my decision and the doctor's actions. Sickening. Outright murder in some cases. A truly viable baby if allowed to be birthed. I have been around far too many premature infants to change my mind about this. With the present cut-off many of these infants would not require specialized care of any kind. Some would be helped by two injections of steroids before birth. Yep, herein the debate lies for some. These babies, though, could then be born without need for assistance afterward. YIKES! I definitely want someone who will fight to prevent such abortions.

:usa Equalization of taxation. X amount on the dollar, period. Pro equal money for equal jobs and equal taxation.

:usa Which, to refer to immediately above, I still think work needs to be done to assure equal pay for equal work. ERA. I believe this for sex, gender identification, race, religion, you get the idea.

:usa Anti affirmative action. I believe this a boil in the butt of humanity and is diametrically opposed to the fight for the above, especially at this point in the game. It is an especially sore subject in my state. My little girl would have to be an almost four point student with gleaming ACTs and extracurriculars to make up for the difference of her race. I knew it was bad, but to actually see the breakdown in numbers when things were going through the court system. *sigh* I was appalled with the decision.

:usa Pro voucher system in education. Should be able to choose what and where our children are taught. Safety is a concern. Curriculum. My daughter will be subject to the brainwash of the powers that be, the Michigan model, as dissected by our school board. Scary? Do you know what your school does and doesn't teach? Private school may be scary too, but at least there you have more choice as to what your child is taught. I seriously considered home-schooling until I saw the price-tag. Then, too, the lack of socialization and the accreditation.

:usa Pro increased availability to college education for ALL. Their ought be no presumption that mommy or daddy pays because they are well-to-do (hubby and I will sure as hell try to help if we can when the time comes, that's not it) or welfare mentality. Education is important. As a country we ought to place a value on it. Even if we say, look, we'll pay for X amount of credit hours at public school (community college even), or toward a tech degree. Something that might help stop the tide of poverty.

:usa Welfare to work programs. Better ones. Better programs for people on disability who would like to volunteer/work.

:usa Environmental clean-up.

:usa Military beef-up. It never should have come to this. Whether I believe in the war or not, I'm seriously disturbed by the sheer volume of reserve forces that have been called up. This was not how our military was meant to function. Clinton did some serious damage.

:usa International relations decision-making. Prioritization. Involving the country in this. This has been a problem for a while.

:usa Prison and legal system reform. TRUE sentencing. If someone is sentenced twenty-five years, then they SERVE twenty-five years.

:usa Legalization of medicinal marijuana.


:usa Pro "right to bear arms." The bad guys seem to be able to get their hands on guns pretty damn easily. I'd like to see a tightening of gun control without a clamp-down on this basic right.

:usa Child welfare. Affordable, safe daycare. Decreased emphasis on "keeping the family together" and more on the safety of children. Decreased timetable for termination of parental rights--a revisiting of these timetables.

[ribbon]

ITIC, I find your comments about abortion disrespectful and inappropriate for this forum. It's one thing to say your position on the topic, but it's another thing to use inflamatory words like murder when you don't know who reading this may or may not have had that medical procedure and under what circumstances it was.

[Vicks]

Woo, lets tone this down, ITIC, you have every right to state your opinion on this post, that is why I created it, I wanted eveyrone to say what they feel would cause them to vote and or not vote for someone. And I want people to state why they feel the way they do about things. "Respect" and "disrespect" are different things for different people, and I expect, on this post, for people to list the issues that draw them in a certain direction and why. NO CENSORSHIP.

So, lets please please please, not turn this post into a "debate"

As the one who started this post, if it turns into a debate I would ask that it be closed, I don't want that to happen, I want everyone to feel INCLUDED, in this post, EVERYONE.

So any other takers?

What issues will draw your vote:

I did come up with one other for me:

:bullet I am a strong advocate against the death penalty, (not for relgious beleifs), I don't think it would make or brake a candidate for me, but it is an issue I feel passionatly against.

Vicks

[Kensington]

Two comments here:

:bullet I forgot to mention that how a candidate feels about the environment & wildlife is very important to me.

:bullet I do believe it's ok for people to state what issues are important to them on this thread, but ITIC has gone into specifics on why she finds abortion wrong, & that is very similar to starting a debate on abortion. While I respect her right to feel that way, posts that begin or slide off into choice debates get closed, for obvious reasons stated many times before. Partial birth abortions are such a tiny amount of the number of ALL abortions, yet they are often used as the be all end & labeled "birth control", which is a phrase I take exception to.

Again, ITIC & anyone reading this, I totally respect your right to feel abortion is not for you or you find it wrong for anyone else, but I, like Vicks, would hate to see this interesting thread derailed into abortion debate. I have found it very interesting to see which topics are coming up over & over in replies, as well as which ones are mentioned just once or twice. Let's try to keep to the topics & not detailed, possibly inflammatory details of every topic, if possible.

[IthinkIcan]

Well, I stand by what I said, in the context I said it. Inflammatory or not, it was not meant to be . . . in fact, it was meant to be QUITE respectful of the issue as a whole. As far as I'm concerned I didn't get into a debatable area. I won't go into explaining why as THAT would bridge into a debate. I didn't mean for anything to be of a debating nature. I explained my viewpoints on most everything, not just one topic area. I didn't call ALL abortion M, only that of a VIABLE "fetus," which makes it a baby. *shrugs* As Kensy pointed out, THIS RARELY happens, which is kinda why I tried to clarify my point about why I only wanted this one area dispensed with. OY. I have leanings as a whole that line up more with pro-choice, apparently (it's been pointed out to me recently). I don't want abortions outlawed. I do have problems with a couple of things though that I would like to see ironed out. I merely wanted to explain. So, this is my explaining my explanation without further explaining the explanation :sarcasm So, please, carry on. :hugon Vicks :hugoff I also find this post very interesting. Was kind of surprised at the rebuff after all the "please post all ye of a more conservative thought." Guess I just wasn't STILL quite careful enough in my wording, OR I should have left well enough alone and not gone into explanation with that particular view, which I had considered. But, I didn't want to treat it any differently AND I wanted to explain the rift in my leanings toward wanting abortion to remain legal but wanting that particular procedure to be illegal.

So, truce? I hope. I don't want this closed.

[ribbon]

:sfishy just wrote this last week, in part as a response to you ITIC. Anyone reading or posting who had that medical procedure might feel unsupported when you call it murder.

SFishy said: For example, if someone comes along requesting support because they just went through an abortion, it is not the time or place in these forums to argue over whether it's "right" or "wrong". It's a touchy and sensative subject and these forums are aimed primarily at people feeling supported... they cannot feel supported if the issue they are currently struggling with is being attacked. It is NOT equally hurtful to the person NOT going through the abortion to NOT be able to say how wrong it is... and you could even say it comes down to healthy boundaries. Someone who has gone through an abortion and is really struggling with that, what healthy purpose does it serve to have them feel attacked or argued about? And what purpose does it serve to debate the decision from a political standpoint if the end result is the person not feeling supported at all -- when that is what these forums are about... getting support.

There are only a few topics like this, and probably only a couple of handful of times we've even had to address issues like them here on the boards.

Are there certain political topics that are just off limits? No... though there are some real touchy ones that could go off track easily that would get watched closely... from either "side" of the fence.

[IthinkIcan]

That's the thing, though. We have a right to opinions. I thought that was what the CE board was about. I really don't want to get into this as to do so would be to debate the subject when that wasn't my intention. I merely offered up my opinion. If people were to read the posts as of late it has been well-established that this board is a bit different. I'm not offering up or taking away support. As you can well see this is why this particular subject is important to BOTH of us and our political leanings. We obviously both have strong feelings about it. Since we can't debate it is likely best to agree to disagree. Also, I am not arguing over right or wrong here. That was not done until someone else came along. Again, I offer up MY opinion. NO ONE has to accept that opinion. They need remember Eleanor Roosevelt's words, "No one can make you feel inferior unless you let them." (paraphrased?) Neither can they make you feel bad. Interestingly, with regard to right or wrong, which goes back to the issue as of late, it's obvious you feel *I* am wrong, so this ought be a non-issue. I could argue non-support and lack of understanding for things I've experienced and seen (some people here know what some of that is). But why? We all feel the way we do for a reason. We have opinions. I merely tried to assert that I don't want abortion to be illegal. I do want to see it used less as a BC method. AND, I want to see late-term/partial-birth abortion eradicated. I SHOULD have stuck with that. But, to be true to myself I do not want to run from my words and hide my tail like a naughty puppy dog when I knew my intention and directly what I was referring to. To expound would be to clearly violate the rules, and I WILL NOT DO THAT. Out of respect for Vicks and the other people who replied, I would like to say there is obviously more than means the eye. I simultaneously said too much and not enough. Because I tried to be careful. I WANT this post to stay open. It's quite interesting and valuable, and I hate that it's gotten diverted by the very thing I pointed out recently. It's OPINION folks. Opinion. It can't hurt you if you don't let it. (please don't let it) VOTE! Voice your opinion at the polls, and know that you still don't know the whole story. I argued for and helped effect change in our denominations position papers with regard to abortion, particularly as it pertained to endangering the mother's health. I had help from a professor. I'll leave it at that. So, I do care. I have compassion. I DO have strong feelings. BUT, I cannot explain. I must bow out so as not to cause problems, and that is a healthy boundary. Thankfully I truly have developed some good boundaries. Arguably people may not like that the "m" word has not departed from my vocabulary, but they obviously do not seem to know directly to what I was referring :sad Then again, maybe Ribbon does and we just have different opinions and that is okay. That's one of the great things about living in the :usa and having the right to vote. So, what takes YOU to the polls?

[MrFishy]

I am making the choice to close this post because of where it is heading.

Good Luck!