In Your Voting Conversations, Don't Use Names
Published on November 6, 2018
While everyone is getting out the vote, I’m going to challenge you to talk to your children about why you are voting the way you are voting.
Bonus points for those keeping score at home, don’t use party or politician names at all.
I’m reminded of a quote that is often attributed to a former president’s spouse, who said,
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” - Eleanor
Our hope for democracy isn’t about preventing or enabling certain groups’ ability to vote. Our hope for democracy is having conversations that don’t turn into yelling matches.
A quick story:
John and Ben were discussing how they were going to vote in the upcoming election, and used the strategy suggested above. They talked about issues and declared what they thought was important. They discussed ideas related to what they valued and found they agreed on most points.
When they went to the ballot box, they cast their votes. Upon leaving the ballot box, they said to each other, “I hope our guy wins.”
When the ballots were counted, John and Ben voted differently from each other.
I believe that if we talk about the issues and not the people or propositions, we will find much more in common than we ever thought we did, even if we end up voting for different people.