"I am not a crook!"

Okay so many of you pry aren't old enough to know the quote title of this post. But it's still funny! Mostly because nearly ALL politicians are crooks in some fashion or another.

I remember growing up and my parents literally never once talked about politics in front of us. I even went with my mom to the polls before and I asked her who she voted for. You'd have thought I just shot someone with the death stare I got! That was NONE of my business. And she meant it. So I think it's funny that I gone 20 years not even knowing my parents political affiliation and I have similar tendencies - always have. Weird. But it also goes to show that you can place on your children the morals and values you care most about with out telling them about politics.

But if you think I'm going to go on a political rant about what I care about let me stop you right there. I CANNOT (nor can anyone else) and WILL NOT tell you who or what to vote for. I can give you some guidelines about voting to make it less of a headache and more of a, look at me I voted!

First and foremost, if you are not registered to vote and you are 18 years old and an American citizen YOU NEED TO REGISTER. Why do you need to register to vote you say? Because you have to register to vote in order to vote! It is not only a duty as an American citizen, but it is a RIGHT that has been hard fought to have!!! At least two wars and SEVERAL liberation movements ... to say the least. So do everyone a favor and register and actually VOTE. I could sit here and give you thousands of reason to and there is not ONE reason you could give me to not.

Second of all, you need to be educated. And not everyone's favorite method of education ... facebook. Your educational background on who and what to vote for should not stem from someone's opinion. Vocab lesson! That's called ... IRRESPONSIBLE. That's right kids! Taking someone else's word for it is not being responsible. Which means? You're going to have to think for yourself and put in the time to be knowledgeable. Awwww man! I know I know it's like a horrible homework assignment come every 4 years! But the good news is there are easier ways to be educated and know what you are voting for! HOORAY!

The first presidential debate for this election happened last night. I will be upfront with those of you who are actually still reading my blog, I did not get to watch it in it's entirety. (Which doesn't mean I won't, but I haven't yet) This is your best bet to get a feel and a vibe for the candidates. If you didn't know anything up until this point, you will be vastly more knowledgeable after watching it. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkrwUU_YApE ) There is the link to watch it on YouTube ... you're welcome! See! I live up to my promise!! Making your life better already!! ( Insert terribly cheesy smile here!) Watch, learn decide for yourself. Take notes if you need to or want to - yeah I'm not kidding. You can watch this anytime you want no one has to know! And even if they did, who cares! You're being a good citizen and taking the time to do the right thing! It's like picking up trash on the side of the street. It's the right thing to do but nobody ever wants to do it.

Another step you can take is get a Sunday newspaper. They're like $1.50 (plus you get coupons ladies!!!) and skim the headlines. Yep skim. Easy right?? When you see something related to the election, read it. Heck skim it if it makes you feel better, at least you are extracting information. This process really does not take long at all and you will learn more than you thought you would! Be sure that you are not just reading articles from the same authors though! You can get caught in the media bias trap!! YIKES! In a land where free speech is well ... used like toilet paper, you have to be careful that you aren't reading all the same rhetoric all the time.

The same could be said for my next step. Google!! WOOP WOOP hooray for the internets! Can you believe that today's college students have always had internet? That's banana crackers to me! Poor encyclopedia Britanica salesmen! Anyway, you can't get caught up on what you read on the internets either. (No it's not a typo I'm actually saying The Internets ... it's funnier!) You can put anything you want out there! Look at me for Pete's sake, I'm a schmuck who decided to start a blog and I get to put whatever I want on it! Google with caution. Read the DailyBeast. A website with predominately liberal authors, but good and valid information. It's a political website that isn't afraid to say what they want. On the flip side, for every article you read on there you should read one from the HuffingtonPost. A notoriously conservative website equally unafraid to tout their stuff. You need a good balance to really make informed decisions. Plus, take a HUGE grain of salt with everything you read regardless of where it comes from. Everyone writes with bias (except me right now which is turning out to be harder than I thought!). I don't want to have that on my conscious that I successfully brainwashed people to my way of thinking. How do I know it's even right? Most of politics are based on  beliefs and opinions. Sure they throw out facts and figures, but at the end of the day the vote comes down to what? Who you BELIEVE will do the best job for the country. No one but Nostradamus could say for sure, and welp ... he's dead. So we have to form our own opinions to make the best decision we can.

My final suggestion, which I must say comes with a bit of hesitation, is to go to a candidates speech. There I said it! It's out lets move on! Sheesh so picky out here! You won't get anymore bias than from the candidates themselves. But the truth of the matter is, you can hear it straight from that pony's mouth. It would be interesting if you could go to multiple speeches to see if candidate "Bob" ever changes his story. Does he tout different slogans and policies when he's around different people? Could be fun if you had a lot of time and a lot of patience on your hands! But in all honesty, you can't come to an all inclusive decision with out hearing it straight from them. Which is why the debates are my first choice. Watch whenever you want, there's a moderator, and you get both sides at once. Rallies are nice though because you can get an uninterrupted stream of his thoughts and ideas. And just so everyone out there doesn't think I'm trying to be some know it all dummyhead telling you to do things I haven't done, I've heard 3 presidential speeches in real life. Two were from the same president but in different areas. It's eye opening for sure and awe inspiring! That dude is president now or could be! Sweet yo!

At the end of the day the biggest thing I want people to know is that when the political heat is on ... DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. No one can tell you what you believe and no one SHOULD tell you how to vote.  Take for example myself, I've always made up my own mind about ... okay well about everything, but when it comes to politics if I'm not educated I don't vote. Think about it this way. If Hitler were alive (Thank God he's not) but if he were and he were running and he was good looking (which he wasn't) and charismatic and well spoken (which he was) and just looked the part and everyone voted for him because of that but didn't hear his words or understand what he was wanting to do. Look what we'd end up with. A horrible person running our country. If you can't fill out all the information on the presidential ballot, don't. There are no laws (I promise because I've done it) that say you have to fill out everything. If you want to do additional research and check out all the Issues, by all means!! But don't feel compelled because you saw a yard sign on your way to the polls that said vote YES on 52 so you do but don't know that voting yes on 52 means that no one is allowed to have front doors on their house anymore, and you like your front door, then you made the wrong choice. Better to be silent than make the wrong choice. That being said, vote for the President. It is important and your vote MOST DEFINITELY matters. If a million people all said their votes don't matter, but they would have voted for the candidate that lost, then I say it most DEFINITELY would have mattered!

Be responsible and take part in the democratic process. It's not just a duty it's a right. Your right to be heard and make a difference! But know what you're doing when you hit the polls November 4, or earlier now because some people are doing that these days. Or whatever. Just know what you're doing!

Don't fly a plane before you take a lesson.



* PS ... unrelated to this post, I have had some feedback that people cannot post comments. I don't like that! So I'm going to have my tech guru have a look see and see if we can't fix it or make it easier! In the meantime, please don't hesitate to e-mail me, even if you think it's "stupid" or "unrelated" I would LOVE to get your opinions and feedback! So feel free to shoot me some any time! christielynnmeyer@gmail.com THANKS!! *