When engaging in discussions with other Americans, and non-Americans, over the past couple of weeks about the American Presidential race I have found that there is very little knowledge accumulated in the minds of people as to why the U.S. presidential candidates are running and what they stand for. It all seems to boil down to party and rhetoric generated by the media to boost ratings. Not a single person I spoke to references either party’s platform. We have lost sight of how our political system works. How can it be broken if it is not common knowledge how it works?

I view this and any election as the people hiring someone to lead or manage the government on our behalf. I think this tenant has been lost on most folks and needs to be renewed. I began to think to myself if these guys are going to be running the government they had better have a plan. Their plans are contained in each party’s platform, or business plan, for the next term. These guys, and gal, running for office are nothing more than figure heads on top of that platform. You can read these platforms here:

• Democratic Platform
• Republican Platform

If you have not read them, you should. You might be surprised at what you find.

My vote in November will entirely be based upon the following criteria:

• How effective I perceive a party’s platform to be
• The likelihood I perceive that a party will attain its goals in a manner important to me
• The impact on my financial well being I perceive of a party attaining their goals

Input for evaluating these criteria will be based on the completed reading of the platform documents and the debate series. That’s it. What’s your criteria and where are you getting your information? Can you articulate your criteria and what’s important to you?

The issues that are important to me are:

1. The U.S. Economy. The state of the economy impacts my ability to provide for my family and impacts the options available to me for each of the other issues that are important to me.
2. Health Care. My wife has cancer. Need I say more? Under the current system her life has a price. She may very well out live the price on her life thanks to new and rapidly improving treatments. The insurance companies and policies have not kept pace with medical trends. I am greatly concerned that we may find ourselves in a situation where we cannot obtain insurance for her, either as a result of hitting a life-time maximum or me changing jobs, and be unable to provide her treatment due to paper obstacles that stand between her and the treatment she needs. I’ll take on any insurance company, politician, doctor, or lawyer in this debate. Bring it. Where has the Hippocratic oath gone?
3. Education. I have a four year old daughter about to enter primary school. I refuse to put her in a public school due to the lack of quality and opportunities a public school education affords her post secondary school these days. I wish this weren’t the case.
4. Foreign Policy. I don’t work for an American company. The perception of Americans around the world directly affects how people perceive me as an individual, at least upon first impression. This could greatly limit my effectiveness at work and my ability to make money.

It’s as simple and as complicated as that. I could give a crap about the Iraq War or the War on Terror in so much as these externalities affects any of the issues that are important to me. Where are your limits? Where do you draw the line in order to cast an informed vote? No one can care about everything. There isn’t enough time to ponder it all at a meaningful level.

I firmly believe that if everyone could clearly articulate what this race means to them at an individual level we will collectively arrive at a decision that is right for this country. After all, isn’t this how our country was founded? Individuals coming together who understood what they needed and what they wanted, articulating it, and making it happen.