Trading Votes for Promises?

GROUPS OF VOTERS GENERALLY OVERRATE THEIR VOTING STRENGTH. They pay too much attention to promises that candidates for office make. They willingly trade their votes for promises. In this trade they pay first and may get nothing for that payment, no fullfilment of promises. The trader (candidate for office) has no care.

Neither political party can be expected to be truly influenced by the transitory impact of who voted for it. What the party leadership will be influenced by is their inner moral and ethical compass, or the absence of it, when the impact of those votes has faded.

So, what is the right strategy in selecting who to vote for? It is not who promises to address any specific community’s concerns. The right strategy is to select the one who has the character that enables humility, decency, truthfulness, a sense of fairness and social justice, and a record of the same.  Candidates with character are more likely to respect fair trade, delivering on the promises for which they have been paid by votes. They are the ones whose character can fortify any promises they make.

So, ignore the promises, pay attention to character in choosing our future leaders.

Let's not trade votes for promises. Trade votes for character. Trading votes for promises, without attention to character, is a bad bargain.