When voting in an election

A few rules as it's my thread.
Respect everyone's opinions as it's an opinionated with some strong points of views in here.
Stick to the rules that @Balbus has posted up.

This is what i want from you.

Answer this question:
When voting in an election how do you go about it when selecting a party?

 

Definitely personality. The way I see it, policies are 50/50 anyway, they may or may not change, so based on the assumption that nothing will change and in my experience for me personally at least, nothing does, then I want someone charismatic and fun. Someone who likes to joke, kinda like how that Polish pope was several years back. Someone a bit relaxed not so stressed out all the time. It's like all they do is argue about everything. All day every day.

Yeah well, what about us folks that aren't into that? It's like they always go to help the desk jockeys out and completely blind to the fact that a nation isn't run on emails. So I want a personality who can appreciate that and think of everybody and be able to have a sense of humour without giving in to social pressures.

That's the person I am going to vote for. The one I can connect with, the one I'll listen to when they speak, the one that genuinely, at least in my eyes... is looking out for me.

 

The long version

Personalities can be important but the ideology that underpins them or dominates there thinking can be more important, captains can steer the ship but the winds and the currents often dictates their decisions to be used or fought against.

These are some simplistic and general comments on that –

The dominate influencers in the late 19th and early 20th century were laissez faire economics, social Darwinism and social liberalism, the last morphing into socialism, and Keynesianism in opposition to the former.

But it has to be remembered that it wasn’t a clean break or strict adherence to a doctrine, movements arose and fell either in opposition or in sympathy to such ideas they were accepted or fought against while also getting adapted or corrupted, there were the optimistic and the opportunists and those in-between.

Marxism, Bolshevism, trade unionism, nationalism, fascism, Nazism, democratic socialism, the New Deal, civil rights movements, the Bretton Wood agreement and the rise of green movements.

The nationalism of fascistic ideas were defeated in WWII and afterwards more socialist and Keynesian ideas dominated although they were always opposed by wealthy interests.

By the late 1960 early 70’s in many places socialist and Keynesian ideas were under pressure from those that opposed them - the fake socialism of the Soviet Union was a mess and Keynes ideas had been corrupted at Bretton Wood leading to the very financial crisis it was meant to address while also bringing about a military industrial complex in the US.

It was at this time that some wealth sponsored idea that had been heavily promoted gain some following and came to prominence by the end of the decade these ideas coalesced under the heading of neoliberalism - a direct descendant of laissez faire economics and social Darwinist thinking.

Reaganism, Thatcherism, Blair and Clinton, the American consensus, economic globalisation, Russia after the Berlin wall came down.

Well it seems to many that while still been heavily promoted by its wealthy backers neoliberal ideas have been shown up as a failure, its result in post-Soviet Russia was the rise of the oligarchs and a Mafia state, and has resulted not in the dismantling of the military industrial complex but in it morphing into the corporate crony capitalism that dominates today. The ideas of neoliberalism have not only resulted in the rise of inequality, the 2008 economic crash and the dissatisfaction that has brought about Trump and Brexit but are putting the very existence of life on this planet in danger.

I think we are seeing the first rumblings of a change, neoliberal has so obviously failed that it’s like the end of the soviet union with only the ideologically indoctrinated or those gaining from the system still singing its praises. Also the climate crisis has now become obvious that the corruption of neoliberals that ignore it or deny it has become obvious itself.

I think (maybe its called hope) that we are on the cusp of change that something is morphing out of democratic socialist ideas and the global social and environmental movements that can bring about progressive change.

 

The short version

Neoliberalism is a zombie that staggers on but is already rotting as it walks it is only keeping going because of all the money been feed to it by its wealthy sponsors.

Something new is on its way that seems to be coalescing around the heading of ‘A Green Deal’ - something that is morphing out of democratic socialist ideas and the global social and environmental movements that can bring about progressive change.

If that movement gains policies and a leadership that can express those ideas there will be hope.

 

What I will be looking for is

1) Who I think the NHS will be in safe hands with .

2) I do look at the leadership of both main parties and both are bad IMO .

3) Tactical voting . Tories have been in power for over 8 years now and I think we could do with a change .I live in a marginal area .So I may just tactical vote .

4) Issues dealing with the North West. Nearly everything is centered on London and the North- South divide is getting bigger. Nothing against those who live in the South I hasten to add but I just want a fairer deal for us up North.

5) Brexit is least of my priorities . I still feel that being part of Europe would serve us better but I respect those who beg to differ.

6) I am not bothered about saving a couple of quid each week On National Insurance. I do want to keep the married allowance which is worth £250.00 per year to me. But the NHS matters more.

As you can probably gather I do not harbour any party loyalty .

 

Sanity is the only criteria, which is why I don't vote.

 

Some people will be voting in a couple of weeks, I, on the other hand, have already cast my ballot and is now in the hands of the Returning Officer.

 

The way how i go about voting is i check the party's policies.
If i like their policies i will vote for them.
Traditionally i'm a labor voter here in australia.

 

I bet your Labor Leader is better than our Labour Leader .

 

He is quite ok.

 

There's nothing wrong with Jeremy, he's merely bringing the Labour Party back to all the principles it once stood for, principles abandoned by Bliar & Brown.

 

Nothing wrong with his principles. Its his public persona . Boris is just as bad .

 

Jeremy is a serious person, so he has a serious persona

 

I don't disagree . But its his image that puts many people off including myself . VG is correct IMO in him comparing Jeremy to a college professor . Boris is just a stand up comedian in my eyes. . Rebecca Long- Bailey would be my choice as Labour Leader .

 

Just a side note current labour leader looks like robert walls who used to be an AFL coach.

 

Truthfully I've never paid much attention to politics until about a year ago when a really politically active friend of mine got me to pay attention. So I can't say how I act in terms of like a pattern, but I have gravitated heavily toward Andrew Yang because he is the only candidate that is talking about things that actually affect me. Warren, Sanders, Biden, Trump...none of them are talking about doing anything for me. Yang appeals to a demographic that is largely ignored by most politicians. It's exciting to have a politician on stage talking about things that will have a positive impact on my day to day life.

Tl;dr I select the candidate who is talking to me

 

I generally go and vote for the 'lesser of two evils' (I've never really wholeheartedly supported any one political party) and vote for whoever I think will do best for Britain.

 

Both really. Ideally I'd like to vote on the policies of the candidate, but in reality, character counts.

If not I could probably get behind a Buttigieg. But he's a Mondale like canidate. Just put him in a little tank.

Get off the stage South Bend.

 

That's a good point. Character does go a long way doesn't it? I'm changing my answer to both too

 

For me, it's all about the parties and their policies. I'm right of center, and it would take an awful lot for me to vote for a left-wing party. For me, my considerations are focused on fiscal restraint and electoral reform.