How do you decide what to vote for?

66Mustang

The polls r.e. voting inspired me to ask a question that I’ve been thinking over for a long time. As always please don’t share what you vote for, unless you really want to. The poll is anonymous.

I have always voted for what I think is best for society, even if this is in conflict with my own needs/desires. I was discussing this with family and they said that it only occurred to them to do the same when they were in their middle age years. Before this, they simply voted for who offered to make life better for them personally.

I am not trying to make myself sound righteous for doing this, I was just curious, as I assumed everyone did the same, but apparently my family didn’t at my age.

As an example, if someone offered to increase benefits, but proposed lots of other things that didn’t affect me but would negatively affect the majority of society, self preservation says I should vote for them but I’d actually vote against them.

Just wondering how you make the decision.

66Mustang

I made a small mistake in the poll options. If someone could change “the country” to “society” I’d appreciate it, as I realise voting affects the outside world too!!

Tori_Scope

We're not actually able to edit poll options unfortunately @66Mustang, but I'm sure your comment will help people to understand what you meant  

66Mustang

Ok OK, thanks @Tori_Scope

66Mustang

@woodbine

Interesting about people being liberal when they are younger then getting right wing as they get older. I have heard that before.

I think that is kind of true but what I think happens is that young people of the current time are liberal, but they don’t get less liberal with age, they stay the same, however people born in later decades are even more liberal, which makes the older people look right wing in comparison. Not sure if that makes sense.

66Mustang

PS not saying that’s the case, just my take on it, food for thought.

Tori_Scope

Are you familiar with the 'tyranny of the majority' argument @66Mustang? It's something you might like to read about if you're interested in this kind of topic. I believe I learnt about it when we covered utilitarianism at uni  

66Mustang

Tori_Scope said:

Are you familiar with the 'tyranny of the majority' argument @66Mustang? It's something you might like to read about if you're interested in this kind of topic. I believe I learnt about it when we covered utilitarianism at uni  

Yeah - I never did politics but I remember that concept from philosophy!

We also covered my favourite, the “Selfless Dictator”, which in my opinion sounds perfect but of course there is and would never be any such thing!

leeCal

I usually vote for what I think will benefit me. I don’t see what’s wrong with that as I’m an average kind of person , ie what benefits me will undoubtedly benefit many others too. 

I never vote conservative however and if theres no party worth voting for I don’t vote at all! 

I did philosophy at uni, I gave it up as we seemed to get stuck on words like ‘good’ or ‘best’, drove me nuts frankly.

Tori_Scope

I thought I remembered you were a bit of a philosopher @66Mustang! The 'veil of ignorance' was another concept I found interesting when studying political theory.

66Mustang

@leeCal what do you mean about getting stuck on words? Sorry if I’m being dim. I always found it a very open minded subject but with room for debate if you wanted to!

@Tori_Scope yes I remember that too I wouldn’t have chosen to do politics as a subject but as part of philosophy I found it very interesting stuff

leeCal

We were at the beginning of the course and had to write an essay on Plato’s Republic. In my essay, if I remember rightly, I’d mentioned that some things were good etc, I was pulled up on it and had to explain my use of the word ‘good’ by a very antagonistic tutor. ‘Best’ was another word which drew criticism . She refused to discuss the whole sentence in which these words appeared and used me to make a point, which would’ve been okay but it was the aggressive way in which she did it which was uncalled for. I decided not to spend more time with her or in her class . 

My main subject was psychology. I was a mature student. 

66Mustang

@leeCal fair enough, I think the teacher can make or break a subject, even at university level I guess. I have a relative who loved history but not the tutor. He was called out and publicly told off in front of the class for reading the Sun and told to only read the Telegraph or the Guardian or something like that. That put him off university.

What I'm saying, is I don't think you should dismiss a whole subject just because of one teacher.

I like psychology as well, did that a bit only at A level though.  

L_Volunteer

Thanks for sharing your views with us @66Mustang. I found your views really insightful! 

I can completely hear that a teacher can make or break a subject. At the same time, it might be possible to find a different teacher and love the subject again 

66Mustang

@L_Volunteer yeah that was my point for LeeCal - I think it's worth a revisit if its a subject you had some interest in before!  

Biblioklept

There's usually a lot of crossover between what's good for individuals and what is good for the country / economy as a whole, which I think is shown when you look at the results of this poll and when you think about what seems to be the general political stance on the forum. 

Growing up I voted what my parents did as they'd told me it was best for the economy / country and it's only been the last 8-10 years I became properly interested in politics and my reading took me down another path and realised I still wanted to vote for what was best for the country and that wasn't what I'd been doing.

So I guess I went the other way and started Tory and become more labour / liberal  

L_Volunteer

@66Mustang Oh, I hear you 

I hear you too @Biblioklept! 

Adrian_Scope

I try to always vote in the interests of the country as a whole, because as @Biblioklept says, that generally ends up being better for me anyway. As I get older, I take every election even more seriously than the last and always vote tactically where I can. Unfortunately I live in a safe seat for a party I will never vote for, so it often feels like my vote is completely wasted!

Lisatho11987777

I do vote.  but promises are made that are never kept