Voting and Values

I know that this is exactly how I am feeling lately.  I don’t think that I am alone.

But this is a time when the most dangerous thing to do is stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes, and sing “la la la” at the top of my lungs.

I did learn the hard way that turning up the radio to cover up a concerning noise from the car engine is not a smart way to deal with the problem.  It was quite an expensive lesson.

Can we afford to learn the hard way that ignoring the rumblings around elections, social inequities, wealth distributions, refugee crises, war, impending environmental cataclysm, etc.  will not be an adequate solution to the seemingly endless list of the world’s problems?

I came from a family that was both interested and active in politics.  I must have been aware in way that young children are fuzzily  aware of things of the adult world around the time of the McCarthy hearings.  I remember a feeling of dread that something bad would happen to my parents especially because my father did not hold back on his dislike of Eisenhower. (Specifically something bad like men in suits coming to the door to take him away.) I did not sit with my parents during the news but I must have heard or seen things I did not completely understand.

I also remember the attention and respect that my parents paid to the nightly news for all their years.  I don’t have that kind of trust in the media anymore.  (And then there is the whole issue of endless interruptions for prescription drug commercials.) I don’t know when or where I first heard the advise to distrust everything I hear and most of what I see, but it seems more applicable everyday.

I do try to do the research around voting.  I try to hear both sides.  It’s not always easy.  I am very clear about my own values, and that can make it hard for me to “hear” those who have quite different values.  I’ll admit the difficulty but I do try to understand different points of view.  Sometimes I have to agree to disagree (and allow the other person the right to be wrong).

What really sends me into a tailspin, however, is people who seem to pick a candidate  without any discernible  values component at all.  If someone tells me he or she does not believe in political parties but just votes for the “best candidate for the job,” I am going to believe that person chooses on the basis of personality because that has been my experience.  Makes no sense to me at all.

Bernie supporters who say they will vote for Trump? What?

Explain the similarities/compatibility of ideas and proposals that would lead one to that decision, if you can.