If your favorite candidate(s) win, then congratulations. If they don't win, don't worry, there will be dozens of talking heads on television telling you why they lost. Better luck next time.
Speaking strictly from a personal point of view, a person of good moral character is the most important thing I look for. For example, these days I don't know if it makes that much difference if we elect someone who is going to raise taxes or lower taxes, but I do know I want someone in office who will do their best to look for the best course of action for the country as a whole. I want someone who will take this job seriously.
I want someone who looks forward to working for the people who elected him/her. Our representatives are "hired workers"! They are not divinely appointed rulers who automatically achieve the status of being placed on a high pedestal. If they want to achieve that status, then they had better work and work hard. The mark of whether a politician was truly a great and noble statesman generally isn't confirmed until after they are gone. The self praise many politicians heap on themselves is shallow, hypocritical, and done only to pad their wallets with money.
Wouldn't it be nice to find a politician who was honest and open instead of trying to be who and what he thought his constituents wanted? Having done extensive searches into the speeches and politicking of various candidates, it is amazing how many will actively try to court people of opposing viewpoints. It's one thing to tell two opposing groups of people you will do your best to represent both of them. It's another thing to play those two groups against one another -- telling each side they are in your favor and you will represent them exclusively.
Honesty and integrity segues me into a topic that is generally mentioned in the tabloids, and that is the various stories that a transgendered person is running for public office. I've never lived in an area where such a person was running for office. It wouldn't make any difference to me anyway, because the same standards I look for in candidates (mentioned in the previous paragraphs) are the same standards I would look for in a transgendered candidate -- honesty and integrity.
And since I'm on the subject of transgendered candidates, I think the U.S. is ready for TG candidates in prominent offices if they are people of honesty and integrity. How honest and open can you be in revealing you are a crossdresser or transexual when most of us try to keep that on the hush hush. You then look at this person's personal and public record to see if he or she is a person of integrity.
A person in such a visible office could do much. We could see something of a crossdressing fad in fashion. That could help energize our lackluster economy as more people expand their wardrobes by buying new items. Whether you are male-female or female-male, your wardrobe could easily double. Advertisers could see their business double as manufacturers of women's clothing begin targeting men and vice versa. Crossdressers, transexuals, autogynephiliacs, transvestites, transgendered, all such labeled people you could think of, would be so happy and contented expressing their trues selves while others who were not transgendered would see for the first time this large contingent of the American population that was open and happy and contented and seeking to improve their lives and their neighbor's lives by living honestly and with integrity. Happy citizens are better and more productive citizens.
Male politicians arriving for big fundraisers or formal balls would have a choice of wearing a boring old tuxedo or a designer gown (yummy). If a politician displayed bad fashion sense, that might be something to consider in the next elections. Fashion editors could endlessly speculate on whose fashion sense was on public display -- the politician's, or his wife's. Vogue for Him and Modern Bridegroom would hit the newsstands. More publishing requires more writers, staff, and publishing facilities leading to more economic revival.
I think I'm onto something here. In a few hours I will be casting my ballot, and I'm planning on voting for politicians of high moral values and integrity, possibly transgendered, not afraid to wear a dress in public, able to stimulate the economy with good fashion sense....
On second thought, after reviewing the candidates, maybe I'll just sit on the sofa and read a good book.
Kelli Y
