In this time of heated politics, listen to your heart. Yes, listen to what each candidate has to say, not losing sight of the fact that individuals take great pride in and truly uphold their stances on political issues and those issues that fall under the political realm during election time. Therefore, what these politicians have to say they truly find to be valid and are not wasting your time filling your ears with issues in which they do not believe. They are speaking to you because they genuinely trust in their opinions as to a wide variety of choices that affect their lives and yours. However, go with your gut. If someone is spinning something you just feel in your heart to be wrong, do not think that your impressions are wrong because they are less forceful than those of a particularly well-rehearsed candidate using strong words of conviction in his persuasive arguments. He/she has spun these views many times before and has applied many coats of varnish and lacquer. The glossy finish does not negate your opinions if they differ from his/her set of ideals. Indeed, do not totally disallow for the growth of your political convictions. After all, you are not running for office; the views you hold have not been run through the mill for, if not ultimately incorporating in, what views would be most popular. These views no longer have as much heart and soul and connection to the purely instinctual, intrinsic humanistic side to each public veteran of speech instruction. You hold views simply as a person with the notion that doing something one way is right and that one way is wrong. Your opinions are no more wrong and possibly much more right than those of the orators we so seek to elect (or not). Mind you, I do not promote close-mindedness. I ask not that you tune out other ways of thinking. I merely urge you not to discount your own in favor of budging to fit more closely to the set of ideals talked up by politicians. Listen up, then, and if something catches your ear that really interests you either in the positive connotation or the negative, listen for more. If you really trust in and support whatever views are being imparted into the speaker’s audience, accept as confirmation that you wish to vote for and possibly help in the campaign of the individual with whom you so agree. If, however, you disagree just as resolutely, either take a shine to and listen more intently to the opponent who may hold opinions far more closely related to your own and learn as much as you can so you can truly cast a vote in which you believe. Or, if you wish, enter into political activism and spend more time disproving the other guy than reinforcing the person in the right.
