Civic Engagement thinking Globally

This year there are many elections going on. Some of them include but not limited in its entirety to U.S. midterm elections, E.U. Parliament elections, Indian elections, Scotland voting whether or not to stay apart of the U.K. or not, and others. With that it is said that in a democratic society, one of the simplest and most important acts of civil engagement. I will give that statement credit for the importance of it, but simplest, not so much.  Yet, is it simple? When the Scottish vote to stay apart of the U.K., there are some things they need to consider. Whether or  not they will need join the U.N., the E.U., whether or not their economy can stand on its own, their military, essentially could their country hold up on its own or not, and what help could they get, but with that what level of sovereignty would they be willing to give up? The Indian election they would need to figure out who will best lead the country of over 1.2 trillion people. Then the European elections will determine who will determine one of the governing bodies of nearly 30 countries that take some research to determine who will govern more than half of the countries that were the major players in both WWI and WWII. This requires research to determine who can work with who and who will decide to do what is best for Europe. Example on how this is important, was it the best idea for the E.U. bail out Greece a few years back? Each country has their own interests and the voters need to determine the best way to balance them .

Speaking of trying to balance their vastly different interest that brings me to the U.S. midterm elections.  In the U.S. elections, I fear we do not research things nearly enough. Many people feel if they are Conservative they should vote Republican, and if they are Liberal should vote Democrat. They repeat what their candidate says without even thinking about what their candidates actually said.  So, for roughly the past five years Republicans have said they hate Obamacare and Democrats have said they love Obamacare. Yet, if some Republicans look at it, they will like something about it. If Democrats really looked at it, there would be somethings they didn’t like about it. Why? They are politicians, they are people and they do not everything perfectly. Yet it passed, so there must be something to it. So at the end of the day, we really do not fully understand the issues, or the answers because we listen our side and not the other. With that said all of the other elections I listed above, have the same problems. Any election with partisan cheerleaders or cheer leaders for specific people will have the problems. So, anyone who reads this if you are voting in the previously listed elections or one I missed, do me a favor play devil’s advocate, you may change your mind. Also do some research, so you know people actually have reasons for voting for the other side. Also, do not vote if you have not done research, just since you were told it is a great idea. You are not helping anything. In fact you are canceling out the votes of the people who took the time to learn about the issues.

For the record, this assignment post was to be on advancement of civil engagement while thinking about being a global citizen. I personally think the best way to be civilly engaged as a global citizen is through thoughtful elections. Why, since if citizens of an area are going to be judged by their elected officials then we need elected officials who make wise decisions for their people and on behalf of their people.