How to Vet and Choose a Candidate: A Quick Guide to Election Sanity
Would you hire someone without checking their background?
There are too many “bumper sticker” candidates who are the “hit and run” of politics. They use 10-second sound bites that look good and sound good, but lack depth. In some cases, there’s an ulterior motive. Remember former President Obama? Looked and sounded great, but how many voters bothered to check his background or dig into what he meant by “fundamentally transform” America? Did anyone ask? The wave of excitement for electing our first black president was palpable. We chucked reason out the door.
“Bumper sticker” candidates are those who intentionally mislead voters with propaganda and with information that’s untrue. It’s especially noticeable in our election integrity efforts and candidates who’ve made an entire campaign on this issue to the exclusion of other.
Here are some questions to ask yourself before you vote:
1. Are they using inflammatory language and hyper emotionalism? We need clear heads and logical strategies. Acting in haste means important facts can be missed.
2. What is the candidate’s history? A simple call or email often clarifies whether they were successful. Did they play nice with others? Did they keep their commitments? What was the outcome of their accomplishments?
3. Do they have an internet presence? Some candidates have it scrubbed to hide their background and activities leaving room for creative writing.
4. Have they ever run anything larger than a postage stamp? How did they obtain their money? Successful bottom-line profit & loss or other relevant experience is critical. Where’s the proof?
5. What is their approach to problem solving? Are they single contributors or do they work well as a team? Can they negotiate to get bills passed? The “hit it with a hammer” approach results in resentment, bad will and legislative failure.
6. Have they been a PC? Candidates “cut their teeth” on the political process and learn valuable skills as Precinct Committeemen. Their leadership skills become evident. What was their track record?
7. Who's funding their campaign? Campaign finance reports are telling.
8. If an elected public official, what's their track record? Check their voting record from several sources. They need to start at the bottom and work their way up so they develop one.
9. What kind of campaign are they running? Search and destroy? Are they helping the Democrats by hurting other Republicans? Are they ethical, principled and moral?
10. Can they prove their claims? It’s important not to take at face value claims. Check and double check.
If you’re getting all your news from far-right media, it’s almost as bad as getting it from the Left’s MSM. Both have an agenda. But that doesn’t mean either needs to discarded. Instead, read both for “facts” and skip their interpretation of the facts. It’s relatively easy to verify the facts through other articles or the documents that they got their information from. Often there’s a link in the article. When you compare the interpretation to what the document says, the gap between them is the degree of propaganda. Also, when the media mentions a group, go to their website and verify what’s being reported. It’s time to be responsible for election decisions and stop delegating them to “bumper sticker” candidates and their allies.