How to Vote: The Essence.

How to Vote. I wish I could advise every American how to vote in the presidential election, because there's a way to simplify the choice, beneath all the chatter and noise. I'd like to say: Imagine that you've never heard anything good or anything bad about either candidate at all concerning what they've done in the past or will do in the future. Imagine there were no political parties, just two people running for president. Now, listen to them talk. Ignore any specific promise either might make. Imagine that it can't or won't be fulfilled as said. Just listen to how they talk.

Listen well to their words and tones of voice and ask: Does this sound like a good person? Does this sound like a wise person? Right now, doing this, you don't have to believe anything you've heard anyone else say about either. Forget books, magazine articles, newspapers, websites, radio shows and television broadcasts. In fact, for this experiment, you shouldn't believe any of that. Stripping away all other things, dropping every other consideration, vote for who most consistently sounds good and wise in his own words and tones over time. That's it. Not twenty years ago or forty, but now. Who sounds kind, compassionate, and more trustworthy? Who sounds most capably perceptive and insightful? Vote for that person. Forgetting everything else, choose on the basis of those two judgments that you can make, and not that anyone else makes for you. Remember what life has taught you about the good and wise and the otherwise. And vote accordingly. Just a suggestion, in case you might waver or feel confused.