cradle2graveconservative
12-22-2007, 09:58 PM
I've been pondering this for a while now, and I'm curious to see what the Ron Paul Community has to say regarding the subject of voting.
I see two reasons for voting: voting to better the country and voting to better oneself. I get the distinct impression that many, if not the majority of people believe the right thing to do is vote for the betterment of the country, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If I'm honest with myself, as painful as that sometimes is, the reason for most of my political stances is my own well being. For instance, I want to get out of Iraq, not because I believe we stole their country, committed some sort of heinous humanitarian crime or really care that much about the Iraqi people, but because I don't want to pay for the damn thing. The reason I support tough immigration isn't really because I want everyone to have a fair chance to come to this country, but because I don't believe there are enough resources to sustain the standard of living most Americans (including me) are used to if the flow of peoples into the U.S. is unregulated. I don't want universal health care, not because I think it will be more expensive and less efficient (even though it will be), but because it totally invalidates my desire to specialize in neurology.
What does the forum think, am I being overly cynical and an inhuman jerk, or do I have the right idea about what voting is for?
I see two reasons for voting: voting to better the country and voting to better oneself. I get the distinct impression that many, if not the majority of people believe the right thing to do is vote for the betterment of the country, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If I'm honest with myself, as painful as that sometimes is, the reason for most of my political stances is my own well being. For instance, I want to get out of Iraq, not because I believe we stole their country, committed some sort of heinous humanitarian crime or really care that much about the Iraqi people, but because I don't want to pay for the damn thing. The reason I support tough immigration isn't really because I want everyone to have a fair chance to come to this country, but because I don't believe there are enough resources to sustain the standard of living most Americans (including me) are used to if the flow of peoples into the U.S. is unregulated. I don't want universal health care, not because I think it will be more expensive and less efficient (even though it will be), but because it totally invalidates my desire to specialize in neurology.
What does the forum think, am I being overly cynical and an inhuman jerk, or do I have the right idea about what voting is for?