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The first tool that comes to mind is the Project Vote Smart Voter’s Self-Defense Manual. Published yearly, this manual is often made available free by local public service institutions such as your local library. You can also seek out contact information for Project Vote Smart. In this handy, 70 some odd page, paper publication you will find information about the presidential election during the presidential election years. This will include precise information for determining how the presidential candidates stand on all the important issues that affect you and those you know.
The Voter’s Self-Defense Manual also lists contact information for all Senators and Representatives. You will also find your congressman’s performance evaluations and key votes and how they voted. There is also state level governmental information.
The next several tools will help give you a picture of how the political landscape will be affected if your candidate is elected. As there are executive, legislative and judicial branches of government all currently having seats filled by someone, how they are likely to interact and check and balance one another with the new mix of politicians your votes will bring in is an important consideration.
The following books are among the most held titles by those who want to be completely informed about the current political landscape and those who influence it from the inside. “The almanac of American politics” and “How to track politics on the Internet” are two volumes you should own including any past, current and future editions.
You will also enjoy extensive contact with representatives of both major political parties. Especially around election time it will be easy to discover what local organizations exist for keeping up to date on both parties, their philosophies and their slants on various issues.
Areas to discover about any political candidate.
You will want to know the party affiliation of a candidate and whether they have been loyal to that party their entire life and political career. You will want to know whether a candidate has any consistent character flaws and how they have affected and could affect their personal empowerment, performance and stance on current or potential issues. How have they functioned respective of the rich, the poor, in times of war or peace? Sources for information about candidates should be factual and not just political commentary. Remember that your newspaper will generally favor the Democrats as Journalism as a field always has. When thinking fact think history. Anything that is a commonly known historical truth about a candidate is something on which to base, at least in part, your estimation of that individual politically.
Areas to discover about the issues.
Certain issues will be favored naturally by Republicans such as the right to bear arms as stated in the constitution. Democrats will generally favor other issues like the right to form a labor union. You may care to what degree you are making friends in one party or another by voting for an issue; you also may not consider this if you have strong feelings about an issue on its face.
You may want to know how the successful support of an issue has affected society or other societies in the past. When deciding what kind of stand you will take on an issue for the long haul, you may want to see how that issue has shaped other countries. Great Britain for example has historically favored the institution of gun control. The result has been a low number of murders by gun; in fact the number is almost non-existent. You will want to consider what other laws have really done where they have been passed before. You may want to consider your own society and the world at large as well, as in foreign affairs. We are truly a global society now more than ever.
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