Voting 'the issues' is a waste of time and why we are in the mess we are in.
In *theory*, the job of a person who is going to make a legislative decision on any given item is supposed to spend the time to determine what's at stake and then make a principled and informed decision. That's not what happens.
What happens is that people vote on the issues* so politicians promise one way or the other on the issues in the hopes of getting the most votes from one group of voters or another. "I'm a Democrat, the people who vote for me are pro-union as a whole, so my stance on an immigration is going to be driven by what I think my voters opinions are on immigration" So the whole political process becomes a game of trying to divide up blocks of voters to curry favor oover the calculated attempt to find the most popular combinations. The politician sells out his vote to the highest bidder, in this case the 'highest bidder' is the largest block of voters, often organized into groups such as political parties, professional organizations, etc... who are willing or motivated to consolidate their bribe 'votes' as a a way of gaining power or influence.
*those who don't just vote on whomever is more attracive or has the clickest ads or whatever...
Instead of 'issues', vote 'integrity'
I don't have the time in my life to become an expert on social security, national defense, immigration, abortion, stem cell research, foreign trade imbalances, etc...etc..etc.... and then go find someone who will vote the way I want him or her to on those issues, often without having done the same reasearch I did, even though they have far greater resources and, well, that's *supposed* to be their job and their responsibility.
When you hire someone, you hire a minimum wage janitor because you will tell them exaclty what you want them to do so they don't have to think about what they are doing. You hire a prrofessional because the responsibilities and stakes are high; you need someone you can trust to do the right thing because they will need to use auntonomy and creativity to make the right decisions for the right reasons and then you let them do it. Integrity is a janitor is nice but not neccessary, because the potential damage is minimal. When you hire a professional, integrity is paramount because the costs are much higher.
We hire politiicans like we hire janitors. "You get the job because you've promised to do exactly what I say and if you don't, you're out" when we should be hiring politicians like we do professionals "I don't have time to do your job and to mircomanage how you get it done; I need someone with the skills and personal integrity to go and do the job I need them to do"
Don't hire a politician who has promised to to kowtow to do exactly what he or she thinks the most of the people want him to do, whether they have a clue or not because he probably doesn't really have a clue either but has just sold out to what he hopes is the larget group. Hire someone who can be trusted to research the depth of the issue and make a principled and intentional decision. That's what they're being hired for...unless you think you have the time to do their job
