The what and the how

“I don’t think I know enough to vote! How could anybody know about all of this stuff?” My grandma said that to me while I was home for fall break. I, like most people, think that voters can and should try to learn about the issues and candidates in any election before they vote. I usually consider myself one of these well-informed voters.

But it’s true that every article I read about ISIS or Ebola makes references to things I’ve never heard of before. To Wikipedia! As I watched a debate for the U.S. Senate seat in my home state of Iowa, I was thankful that I had my laptop open right beside me to google the policies and bills that came up, many of which I didn’t recognize. I have definitely asked the same question—“How could anybody know about all of this stuff?”

The great thing about a representative democracy is that we don’t have to know everything in order to participate. Because we aren’t a direct democracy, we don’t—usually—vote on policies or laws themselves. Rather than voting for policies, we vote for people whom we empower to make laws on our behalf.

In order for a system like that to work, though, we have to think less about specifics. A candidate’s voting record from the House floor, for instance, is a product of the specific circumstances in which each of those votes took place. While it might give us some indication of how an incumbent has performed on the job in the past, it doesn’t necessarily predict how he or she will perform in the future. Something like a voting record or a list of policy positions tells us about the candidate’s actions in certain circumstances that are subject to change—but dissecting it to death doesn’t necessarily tell us what the candidate’s values are. Since we vote for people and not policies, perhaps we should be more concerned with the core values that will shape a candidate’s actions if elected.

On the other hand, I’m a practical Midwesterner—abstract language about “values” often obscures the need for practical solutions to our problems. I really don’t do well with ideologues who cling to their values as if they are immutable rules that must be defended to the death. I’m frustrated by congressmen and senators that can’t seem to think or act outside the confines of their own convictions in order to fulfill their constitutional obligation to the American people. This kind of thinking can shut down the government—it literally has a couple of times. Practically any candidate that has demonstrated a real willingness to cross ideological lines to get things done can win my support. The ability to compromise is probably what our senators and representatives lack more than anything right now. What else can explain a Senate that has used the filibuster to block legislation more than any other in American history?

But what do we really mean when we talk about “values?" Simply put, values are the things we care about. Most Americans share the same values if you write them broadly enough. Take the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. It summarizes the core values at work in the text—justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare and the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. What American doesn’t want to promote the general welfare? Find me the person that doesn’t want to establish justice or secure freedom for ourselves and our children.

Let’s be honest—whether you identify as a conservative or a liberal, Democrat or Republican, progressive or moderate—these core values are the same. Our failure as a country has been to buy into the delusional belief that we hold fundamentally different value systems that cannot be reconciled. Our government is beginning to feel like an arena—our politics are a duel to the death between completely antagonistic value systems. The American people have been caught in the middle of it all, and we’ll continue to suffer unless we change our mindset.