In another post, I was talking about how, as a journalist and as a person, I am objective to a fault -- I can't come to a conclusion on ANYTHING. I have no firm opinion on abortion, capital punishment, the death penalty, the existence of a Christian God, the merits of non-dairy whipped toppings, etc. I always feel that as soon as I come close to making up my mind, some new information or perspective comes along that makes me step back and say, "Hmmm ... I'd better not commit to an opinion until I look into this further." <p>It's frustrating, and, as I said, no more so than election time. I try to be a good newsperson and a good citizen by scrupulously studying the issues and candidates. But, with the exception of a few obviously poorly written initiatives or clearly unsuited candidates, I largely can't make up my mind about how to vote because I worry that there's some fact or viewpoint I haven't seen or heard yet ... and so, for the most part, wind up not voting on much of anything. You should have seen me a few years ago trying to parse the Bush-Gore-Nader tangle, ideologically and pragmatically, in my mind as my pencil hovered above my ballot -- I nearly burst a brain stem trying to make myself make a choice that ultimately I could not make.<p>Am I the only journalist here who struggles with this on election day? Or do you, too, wrestle with objectivity versus partisan decisiveness? If it's easy for you, how? And why? How do you dig through the detritus? How do you approach your "American duty" and still hold your head high? I wish I knew.
|