This is under the category “sounds easy an obvious, but isn’t”.
Most will say they know this, but also recognize many others don’t. Someone’s wrong there.
What should be voted on in an election: the policies and leadership of the candidate.
But it’s a lot harder than it sounds to get voters to do that.
Some of the things NOT to base a vote on:
- The physical appearance of the candidate (we all know the ‘politician look’ that helps them win. While I was deciding in the last 10 minutes whether to post this, I saw a comment on trump’s hair.)
- Who is likely to win. There is an effect that a candidate seeming like they’re the front-runner causes more to vote for them, and vice-versa. No one defends that; many do it.
- The behavior of the candidates’ supporters. How many times have we seen complaints about a candidate’s supporters’ actions followed by saying it’s a reason not to vote for them?
- The well-polished marketing machine advertising, the well funded campaign. Basically ANY candidate can be made to look good or bad by the advertising designed to do that, and it affects a lot of voters — but the money that pays for that is a reason NOT to vote for them.
It’s very hard to ask voters to ‘stick to the issues’ in deciding who to vote for and to not get distracted by these and other factors, like the phony ‘scandals’ that are hyped by partisans.
How many times have we seen votes swing on wrong things, from Reagan’s slogan ‘Morning in America’ to Scott Brown’s truck to Joni Ernst’s pig castrating to Al Gore’s sighing in a debate?
Election basics. Sounds easy, but isn’t.
Next up: election basics, the media: cover 90% issues, 10% horse race, not the other way around.