Frustrated. *Vent*

Over the last 48 hours I have been hearing and reading a lot of comments saying that "those who voted for Obama were probably young, uneducated (collegiately anyway) 18 year olds who were doing it to be trendy and cool" . Just let that sink in for a moment.... By implication then, those who voted for McCain are older, educated persons not swayed by popular trends.

As a "educated" person this upsets me greatly. I take my voting responsibility very seriously. Prior to the election I spent several weeks reading and researching BOTH candidates platforms. Browsing both candidates websites as well as third party websites like CNN and other news. I watched all 3 Presidential debates as well as the Vice Presidential debate. I consider myself and informed voter. I am strongly against voting party line. I hate that button on the ballot which gives us the option to vote all democrat or all republican. Not all democrats are wild liberals who want to abort babies and take aways guns. Not all Republicans are Bible preaching, pro death penalty right wingers. We should be voting for a person, not a party. Voting for a party is the lazy way of doing things in my opinion. In fact, I'd be all for abolishing parties all together. I believe we need to have a balance across the spectrum of beliefs, platforms, and ideas and in order for our nation to run smoothly. Voting party line often involves a lot of assumptions, which is another thing that really irritates me.

Assumptions. Just because I'm LDS does NOT mean I'm a republican. And following the same argument, even if I was a republican, it doesn't mean I am because my parents were, or I am because everyone else in Utah is. Whatever I am, I am because I read. Because I research. Because I am involved. Because I can think for myself. Too often Republicans in Utah are stereotyped as just following the crowd and incapable of thinking for themselves. We need to fight against assumptions. I have often been asked the question, how I can be a good, God fearing, LDS woman and be a "liberal"- like the word is eternal damnation or something. I find this question so ignorant I'm not even going to take the time to give it a response.

Now that the election is over, we need to move past all the back biting and name calling. We need to be United. I would say this no matter the outcome of the election. Whoever you voted for, if you did your research and truly believed in your candidate; I respect you and your vote. We shouldn't spend our time categorizing each other as if one group of voters is more important than another. We all need to support our new President, regardless of how we voted. Because if we don't, we've failed before we've even begun. Divided we fail.

I'd like to propose a new rule for the next presidential campaign. I'd love to take credit for this idea, but in truth, my sister Alayna is the one that came up with it.
"In any debate, commercial, rallies, anything....you can only talk about YOURSELF and what YOU will do. You are NOT allowed to bring up the other person at all."
With this rule in place there would be no nasty name calling, no lies spread, and no negative ads. Political Utopia. It will never happen, but its nice to contemplate.