Who Are You Voting For? Make the Right New Year’s Resolution

Op-Ed

This is one of the most indiscreet questions one could ask. This is almost like asking how much one makes a year, or how old one is, or how much weight one has put on lately. And still, I love asking this question, one with so much loutishness within. And if I ever dare to ask it for real, I always get shrugged shoulders and faint smiles in response. But taking a quick diverse look at this indecorous question, one might arrive at the conclusion that asking it should not be a bad thing to do, especially if we want to grow in a political sense, and in terms of making the right decision when faced with a ballot-box behind those familiar curtains.

To know exactly who we want to vote for, and why, is part of our general knowledge, which matters very much in terms of political decision-making. It is also part of our overall qualification that puts this country on the right path of development. And because knowledge and qualification never come without effort, we need to acquire them accordingly, although acquiring does not mean at all attending a special school to do so. This is a self-learning process which we cannot ignore and should not refuse. If we do, we will never be able to put the right person in the right office at the right time to “do politics” for us and on our behalf.

So, I suggest we make a New Year’s Resolution to become, in 2018 and the years to come, highly knowledgeable and vastly qualified voters in electoral events at any possible level, so that our vote has meaning, good purpose and effective power. If this decision has already been made, let us now take a quick look at how to bring it to life.

Most politicians think the electorate a dumb crowd of people who rarely know what they are doing at the ballot station at the great moment of contemplating the suggested electoral roster and putting a tic next to a certain name – known or not so well known. They might be right with this kind of evaluation of the public, and the aim of this New Year’s Resolution is to break this stereotype, and the only way to break it is to think better than we do, and better thinking is possible only if we train our political wits, and training takes time and energy. If we want to get the right person into the right office at the right time, then we will have to invest the required amount of time and energy into enhancing our political knowledge and qualifications. Once again, a knowledgeable and qualified voter is the most crucial part of the democratic voting mechanism that has enough power to determine a nation’s future.

So, let us say no to blind, emotional and hasty voting, and instead, let us bring in an open-eyed, cool-minded and well-thought-out ballot style. Whether we want it or not, we, the members of a democratically voting society, are the political animals who cannot avoid the electoral process unless we totally and deliberately, for some reason known or unknown, want to ignore the process. What remains is to make a choice between the two: either be an ignorant political animal or a well-versed voter who knows for sure who to vote for, so that the question, ‘Who are you voting for?’ does not trigger any discomfort because the voting was done for the sake of voting and not in order to create a strong prerequisite for a better life.

One of the aims of this New Year’s Resolution is to make our politicians remember that they are not having to make do with a herd of regular electors who donate their valuable vote indifferently, nonchalantly and mechanically; but instead are dealing with politically poised brains, knowledge and qualification that guarantees the most optimal electoral result for the country.

New Year’s Resolutions are often made but not fulfilled. This resolution must not be so! We have to keep it up if we don’t want to be politically disgruntled on a permanent basis, as we so often are, and if we do not want to witness every so often the circus in certain branches of Georgia’s government.

Nugzar B. Ruhadze