VoteSmart or Vote How?

So I needed some help this weekend and called up my friend who can turn any conversation into the direction he wants. BTW – If you are interested, he has a line on some ocean front property (or soon to be) in Nevada. Real good price too.

So he started talking about Project Vote Smart – another voter quiz and information site that helps people sort out the candidates based on the issues.

OK. I had to take the quiz. I think there were 14 issues with between 1 to 3 questions under each category. Very black and white answers though. Pro-Choice or Pro-Life. No fuzzy grays. And it allowed yo to weight each question according to importance.

I came up Bernie & Jill Stein. Again.

I'll have to dig into the history of the site to see if they allow third parties in and how. If they are allowing Jill Stein and Gary Johnson in, then there must be a protocol for other third party candidates to get in.

Re-read my rant on iSideWith about how socialists need to use this site to help get the word out on their presidential candidates. Heaven knows that the capitalist controlled media won't do us any favors.

There were other tools on the site that I found interesting, if not useful.

The Political Galaxy was a graphic ride through the candidates in my area or the ones I would up looking at. I found it a bit difficult to find my local candidates in. I did find them eventually. I was hoping for faster.

The political I Spy was an eye opener. I decided to start looking at the candidates that the Vote Easy aligned my up with. (No one got 100%. I think the best match was 83%.)

So I looked at Bernie Sanders' biography, how he voted on bills listed, his positions on various issues, how he was rated by different social and political organizations, I looked at a list of his speeches (can I find Hillary's speeches to the big bakers here? Probably not.), and his funding.

That was an eye opener and so much for being funded by small contributions. Unless you consider the following small as compared to what the other candidates have received from these same groups:

Organization Amount

Alphabet Inc	$254,814.00
University of California	$139,633.00
Microsoft Corp	$95,296.00
Apple Inc	$85,576.00
Amazon.com	$63,385.00
US Postal Service	$59,368.00
Kaiser Permanente	$56,363.00
US Navy	$52,803.00
Boeing Co	$47,206.00
AT&T Inc	$41,983.00

Since when is corporate America a small donor?

And Alphabet Inc is the parent company of Google, who is trying (quite successfully) to build a monopoly on the search engine business.

As if all this won't have an impact on any policies he tries to put in place.

Ans as far as being pro-union, Boeing tried to move its unionised plant in Washington(?) to non-union South Carolina. Strange that they show up in the money list.

AT&T is fighting to break Verizon's control over wireless and colluded with the NSA on tapping the Internet for NSA spying. They are also fighting against Net Neutrality.

Amazon? Like they are pro-union. I've read how terrible they are towards their suppliers and workers. Those cheap prices come at a cost.

US Navy? Are we building up support for the next war?

I'm sure if I went to OpenSecrets, where this information is culled from, I could find out more.

So, I made the (free) MyVoteSmart account and I am tracking my pols and digging into their positions and following the money. And relevant information will be sent to me via e-mail.

I'm liking this site because it helps make my research into the government and the people running for positions much easier. Enough to seriously think about a donation.

Of course I would like to see a socialist candidate in their VoteSmart program.

That's up to the candidates to get them the information.

It's free. It just costs time.

I can spend that quite easily.

Can socialists afford not to?