Of the Voters, by the voters, and for the voters

Welcome to the blog! I’m glad to have you as a reader, and I hope to talk with you more in the future. Let me say a little about what this blog is, and why I think it’s important, and what I hope to accomplish with it.

As I’m sure you know if you’re reading this, the United States is in the midst of the most closely watched election in our history. Media coverage has been nonstop for almost two years. The media is a blessing and a curse of the modern age. It’s a blessing because of the instant access it offers to events around the world, and a curse because the need to fill a 24 hour news cycle leads to events and opinions being manufactured as news. There has been a lot of shouting about the “liberal media” and the “conservative media,” but both sides are missing the point. We should not rely on the media to provide opinions for us; we should use their instant access to keep ourselves informed with facts, and form our own opinions. That’s what I’ll do here.

That’s why I’ve called this post “Of the Voters, By the Voters, and For the Voters.” That’s all that I am – a voter – the most powerful force in a democratic society. I don’t have any special knowledge or special status. I don’t get invited to the conventions – and even if I were, I wouldn’t have the time or money to go. I won’t be interviewing Obama or McCain.

All I will do is read the news, stay informed, and make up my own mind. Sometimes I’ll be wrong, and I hope that when I am, you’ll tell me in the spirit of cooperation. Because we’re all in this together. The wonderful thing about today’s Internet is that it allows us to communicate, share, and think together. All of us, thinking together, can accomplish so much more than each of us thinking by ourselves.

On November 4th, American voters will all be in the same place – in a voting booth, deciding the course of our country for the next four years and beyond. All of us need to work together to make an informed choice. Let’s begin that work!

Here are answers to some questions you might have about the A Good Voter project:

What is “A Good Voter“?

It’s an online project headquartered at this blog (http://agoodvoter.blogspot.com). It’s the perspective of one American voter learning and thinking about the 2008 elections. The blog will be updated every Tuesday and Friday, and more often during major events like conventions, debates, and the weeks before the election.

Please comment here or E-mail me at agoodvoter@gmail.com .

There is also a Twitter feed that I will use to cover live events like speeches and debates:
http://twitter.com/agoodvoter

There may be A Good Voter projects in other places on the web soon. Stay tuned here. If you are in the Baltimore area and would like to help, send me an E-mail.

Why the name?

Because that’s what I want to be: a good voter. My hope is that by staying informed between now and November 4th, I can make the most thoughtful choice then, and help other people make thoughtful choices too.

What is the goal of this project?

Quite simply: To get other people to think about the election from the only perspective that matters: their own, as an American voter. (Or for international readers, an observer of an American election.) My dream is that by Election Day, there will be 20 similar sites – maybe there are already – and by Election Day 2012, there will be 1,000.

Stay tuned from now until Election Day – it will be a wild ride!