After reading my good friend Jason de Villa's latest post, Thoughts on the coming elections, I almost followed suit by coming up with a list of recommendations myself. After all, even Ate Cecile van Straten came up with one. Still, I'm sticking to my previously undeclared blogging principles (and no, it's not the "either this guy's so totally Western that practically 90% of his posts concern the degenerate West, or he's really, really into ivory towers and refuses to concern himself with real-life problems and issues"; that's a valid observation, and nothing that I purposely set out to do) regarding Philippine politics: that my opinion holds weight only as a registered voter who has consistently voted for people who consistently lose. I haven't voted for a winning Presidential candidate, for example, since...well, ever. Only 1 out of every 3 senators I vote for have won. I'm like the kiss of death for electoral success; a vote from John-D assures noble defeat.
Despite my dismal track record when it comes to helping put capable men and women into office, here are some guidelines on voting that I have more or less developed after years of never even smelling the vicarious validation of victory:
1. Don't buy into the myth that one must only vote for the "winnable". My attitude towards the vote is much like my attitude towards prayer. When we pray, we may not always get something better out of it, but the very act of prayer always makes the person who prays a better person for having done so. In a very real way, our vote is a reflection of who we are and who we aspire to be. Tangentially, cantankerous NBA pundit Charley Rosen observed that one major reason for the ignominious first round exit of the Dallas Mavericks stems from Avery Johnson's decision to rest "his starters in a 'meaningless' game in Golden State the day before the regular season ended — a game easily won by the desperate Warriors. It was a cowardly move by Johnson that went counter to his play-all-out-all-the-time game plan."
2. Don't buy into the cult of personality, or personal relations that informs much of our political views. Filipinos are very keen on interpersonal relationships, and this is normally a very good trait. However, this is lamentable in politics. So many of our political decisions are influenced by our real or perceived personal relationship with our politicians. And so, many educated voters are likely to say "I'm voting for so-and-so-politician because he dropped by once, and he seemed like a genuinely nice person," or "I'm voting for so-and-so-politician because my mom's 2nd cousin on her father's side knows him," when in fact we should...
3. Try to make an informed vote. Let's concentrate on issues, platforms, political track records, and last but not least, the personal competency of the politician to not only hold office but ennoble the office by being voted to it. It is important to realize that originally, the word Solon referred to both an actual Athenian lawgiver significant for his contributions to classical law and to a member of a legislative body that is both wise and skillful. Let's vote for persons who are both professionally and personally excellent. As I said above, our vote is a reflection of who we are and who we aspire to be. Let's vote people who we would not be ashamed of being more like. Let's aspire, for the lack of a better term, for more.
We owe it to the kids.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Vote!
4 comments:
I used to go think about voting for someone in order to make sure that someone else did ot get int o the magic 12, but I'm through with political calculations like that. I think that consistently making election choices based on principles, platforms, and performance will be better for the country in the long run. It might take a while, but int he end it'll be better for all of us.
That's the way I used to think too! Sort of how you sometimes force yourself to finish a big meal that you really don't like eating simply because you want to make the most of what you've spent on the meal...I ramble, but I hope people get the point. Principles. Platform. Performance. That's the ticket.
I like this post! It's both entertaining and very educational. Really helpful stuff for us, first-time voters. Marlowe and I were actually debating about your 2nd guideline a couple of nights ago. I really believe that, since a lot of people are already realizing that we have this culture of voting for our realtives just because they are our relatives, it can change soon. I also like how you view voting as prayer. It makes each vote more meaningful. I myself, like Sir Jason, will be voting for the Kapatiran Senatoriables because I heard them once in the radio and they're really good. Good luck to us all this coming elections!
It's all about informed choices. And you kids positively inspire me. Thanks for believing in lasting change. Send my best to Marlowe please. Does he have a blog? At any rate, continue believing. :-)
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