by Michael Mikolajczyk

Created on: April 24, 2008

It seems odd to me that quite possibly one of the single most important things that we as citizens of the United States of America is often decided based on something as fluctuating and transparent as emotion. People see riveting speeches, flowery words, and sharp wit as prime reasons to elect a person as either the next President, or the next Governor, or the next Council Chair, or any other position up or down the ladder of electoral positions.

That is not I repeat, NOT a good idea.

Emotions can be false; emotions can be temporary; emotions can be misplaced; and emotions can be misleading. Emotions alone are not enough to base any important decision on; especially not one with the magnitude of placing a person in power above us.

Why, then, do people use emotions so much?

Well, simply put, logic is oftentimes boring to the masses that cling to each and every word of hope and encouragement that they can find. In our pessimistic world, we need hope, and emotion in these cases trumps the facts that logic has to bring.

The perfect example of these statements is our current Democratic Primary situation in America. We have two candidates now, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, each of whom would make a wonderful president and should be given equal consideration. Notice who all the buzz is about, though. Obama easily takes the cake in terms of excitement and passion, and he unsurprisingly is attracting more and more of the young voters who have yet to be disillusioned with the political scene. Hillary, who at the beginning chose to make a very reason-based pitch for her campaign, has suffered when compared to the emotional high that is the Obama movement.

You may be thinking that I'm a Clinton supporter at this point, but you'd be wrong. I am a firm, steadfast supporter of Barack Obama as the next nominee and President of the United States, but I have a problem with the voters who choose Obama solely for his charisma, vigor, and ability to excite the nation.

Yes, we should pay attention to this characteristics, but we should make our decisions based on the facts themselves, not on the feelings that area provided. Unfortunately, though, many are choosing Obama and Hillary, to be fair based off of ideas, beliefs, and reasons that are illogical to their very core.

Hopefully we are able to see the error of this line of thinking and understand that while both emotion and logic have a necessary seat at the table of decision-making, we should ultimately decide based on our head, not our heart.

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