The Flow of Consciousness

Dear Editor,

February 5 is this coming Tuesday, commonly known in the elections world as Super Tuesday, the day when a large number of states will hold presidential primaries and caucuses. We Pennsylvanians won’t vote until April, but our opinions and voices count nonetheless.

I write not to endorse a singular candidate, but to encourage each readers to be a responsible voter and research the candidates, considering each candidate’s stance on the major issues, as well as the smaller issues. I won’t list the issues for fear of omitting someone’s favorite issues or including an issue which I feel is important and which others feel is unimportant.

It’s easy for we Americans who are registered Republicans or Democrats to simply pick the media’s so-called “frontrunner,” and ignoring the other candidates who may or may not be more qualified than he or she. We live in a society where information is available and prevalent. A few minutes at a computer with Internet access can reveal more of the candidates’ message, persona, and agenda than any newspaper, television program, or radio message can hope to deliver in an acceptable time frame.

While accessing the Internet, visit Google.com, type in each candidate’s name, and see what results. Visit YouTube.com and do the same. Visit each candidate’s web site and visit political sites and blogs. If you don’t have a computer, please visit the local library or contact someone who would be willing to let you use their computer for a short period of time.

Lastly, I urge readers to reexamine the U.S. Constitution and all of the amendments—not just the Bill of Rights—while doing their investigations of the candidates. I’m sure many readers haven’t seen either since their days in school. Reconsider the role of the president and the federal government and what the framers of the Constitution and the United States had in mind, and consider how those ideas apply today. A president must swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and any candidate who does not actively seek to do so even while campaigning is not a suitable candidate.

Sincerely,
<signed>
Colin Dean