How to vote, and not screw yourself over in the process

Ah, it's an election year!  Time for everyone to polarize, sling mud, make false accusations, and insinuate that people who don't agree with them are definitely responsible for the downfall of this country.  Isn't it grand this thing we do every four years here in the land of apple pie and baseball? I understand how hard it can be to wade through the mud that everyone else is slinging, so I'm going to break this down quick and easy for all you people who might be confused about how to vote.  I'm not going to tell you who to vote for.  I'm going to tell you how to decide.  Remember, everything here is opinion.  I don't claim it to be anything else.  Anyway, without further ado, here's my version of how to cast a vote and not totally screw yourself over in the process.

First of all, look at who you are, what demographic you fit into, and what issues might pertain to you either directly or indirectly.  I, for example, am female, 30 years old, have three children, and a husband who is in the military (Reserves).  I am also a veteran, a gun owner, and hoping to be a land owner and organic farmer sometime in the not so distant future.

Let's pick this apart and see what interest groups I fall into:

Woman
Mother
Military/Veteran
Gun Owner
Possibly needs a mortgage
Possibly family farmer

Let's look at the issues that pertain to each of these. (One of those story web graphs you learned back in school could be handy here).  For mine, we'll just do three.

Woman:
Reproductive rights
Healthcare

Mother:
Schools
Healthcare

Military/Veteran:
War in Afghanistan
War in other places??
VA


OK, so now we see that the issues that are going to impact my life the most are reproductive rights, healthcare, education, war, and veterans' benefits.  Now, I need to figure out where I stand on all these issues. 

Reproductive rights:
Uphold Roe vs Wade.  I hope to never have to use the freedoms it grants, but it would hugely chip away at women's rights for Roe to be overturned.  Not to mention, it would result in unsafe healthcare for many women all over the nation.  Roe must stay.  We also need better access to contraception, even to minors, without parental consent.  Planned Parenthood is a vital and important part of that, and it needs support.  Abstinence Only education in schools is inadequate.  Homebirth midwives must be licensed to practice in all states.  We also need greater maternity leave so that working mothers have a better shot at breastfeeding.

Healthcare:
Obamacare must stand.  There are parts of it I absolutely despise, but the fact that insurance companies can no longer turn people away for preexisting conditions, and cannot drop people from coverage for no reason, is reason enough to keep it.  I also would like to see increased pressure on health insurance companies to cover things like homebirth, birth center birth, and high quality breastpumps. I would like to see that nobody uses the ER as their primary care physician anymore, that there is an alternative to that.  I would also like to see WIC stop providing formula for those who are getting it without medical need, as this would drive the cost of formula down, and promote breastfeeding, thus resulting in a healthier nation on the whole.

Military/Veteran:
The wars must end.  The VA must be funded.  Better programs for female veterans must be put into place. Continue to improve programs for veterans with PTSD and related issues.  Extend standards for Purple Heart medal to include veterans with PTSD.  Clarify VA disability rating standards, and make the process easier to navigate for new vets (or their thoroughly confused spouses... LOL).


So now that I know where I stand on important issues, I can start to get a better idea of what candidates would suit me the best.  Then I can narrow it down based on voting records and past bills sponsored/vetoed/signed in.  Then hopefully, by the time I reach the voting booth in November, I will know exactly who represents me the best.

I recommend everybody do the same.  Voting for some political party because your parents do is crazy.  Voting for whoever pays the most lip service to some issue is sometimes misguided. (Military people, I'm looking at you.  Those Republicans will give us all the pretty things and pay raises our hearts desire, but they send us into unjust wars and some of us die.  Is it worth it?)

Don't even get me going on values voting.  It may be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of.  I swear, every time I hear some guy who lives in a trailer park say he's voting Republican because they're pro-life, I want to scream, because sure, they're pro-life, but they also are going to tax the crap out of him, make sure his standard of living doesn't improve at all, and might even go down, while padding their bank accounts on the results of his hard work.  You don't want to do that.  The fact is, there are a lot of people out there who want nothing more than a bunch more cogs for their machine, and get them with ease by playing to the values voting crowd, leading them like lambs to the slaughter.

I'll say, the major two parties are both full of problems, but I think, for each of us, we can figure out some candidate, be they major party or smaller party, that will suit our needs well enough to earn our vote. I also think it's important to understand how our political system works.  Learn how the parties work, how the electoral votes are distributed, and what your vote actually does when it leaves your hands at the ballot box.  This could sway you from choosing the best fit for you over all, to the best fit from one of the major parties, or the other way around.  You absolutely must understand our political process before you vote.  To do otherwise is to go off half cocked.

We have this cool thing called democracy here, but unfortunately, I see a lot of people just totally making a mess out of it because they simply don't know how to use it.  My hope is that before this next election, people will educate themselves.

Also, don't vote for Mitt Romney.  He big time sucks.  <----  Opinion.  But if you decide to heed it, I won't complain.