Mind Matters: Presidential Politics Wendy Jameson, Success Coach Presidential politics are high on most everyone’s mind these days, with the primaries and caucuses taking place nationwide. And, there’s a lot to choose from, with platforms covering just about every possible angle. I’m not crazy enough to discuss politics here, but I think it is important for each of us to consider what is important to us and look at the candidates to determine who we’re most comfortable with. Each of us places importance on different values, and the way we evaluate a candidate or his or her platform is based on our value system. What kind of voter are you? • Platform Voter: You pore over documents, dig in candidates’ websites and track their voting history. You want to know where each candidate stands on every issue that is important to you. When you vote, you weigh the options, and whoever has the platform closest to yours will get your vote. This gets tricky when they agree on some issues and disagree on others, so you have to do some mental math to determine which are most critical. • Personality Voter: While a candidate’s platform is important, what is most important to you is how he or she makes you feel – comfortable, confident, assured and willing to follow his or her lead. You pay attention to a candidate’s personality and the emotions he or she evoke. When asked why they voted for a particular candidate, Personality Voters will say, “I just liked him.” • Party Voter: Believing that your party does a platform evaluation, and trusting that it is consistent with your own, you vote along party lines. Endorsements factor big for you. During a primary, you will lean more towards who the most prominent or most admired party representative endorses. Or, you will poll your party friends and get their opinions. • Gender (Trait) Voter: While I only know of women voting only for women, it could certainly happen in other ways. Gender voters believe that anyone of their preferred gender will have more in common with them than any candidate of the other gender. They do not research platforms nor spend time learning much about candidates, though they may stay within the party. This also holds true for a specific issue (e.g., abortion rights) or a candidate trait (e.g., homosexuality, physical disability or race). • Best-of-Bad Voter: These voters think there is no one on the ticket, either side, that is good enough. They are discouraged, unhappy and reluctant to vote. Nonetheless, they will choose the best available, saying, “They are all bad, so I picked the one I thought would do the least damage.” This voter may determine what is “best” based on any of the above four voter types. • Blind Voter: I can hear this person now: “It doesn’t matter who I vote for, since my vote is pretty much irrelevant. I just think I should vote, so I close my eyes and pick one.” I’m not going to say one of these is better than another, although I do hope you won’t vote blindly. Please spend some time thinking about what is important to you and why, if only for conversation’s sake. We all want each other to make informed decisions. Wendy Jameson, MA, is a business coach, writer, marketing and management consultant, entrepreneur, web designer/strategist/manager, and has been an art teacher and family therapist. She lives in Gilbert with her husband, two boys and two Labrador retrievers. Contact her at wendy@potentiate.net.