Politics, some thoughts.

With the recent municipality council elections over with I'm feeling a tad disappointed. Not just with the result, even if that does worry me a bit.

What bothers me is the amount of people that frequently do not vote based on the actual program a specific party has, but more based on some one liners or a single person behind that party.

So often I hear disgruntled comments later that voters do not feel that a politician has kept their promises.
 Now politicians are not always honest, but quite often the specific point of complaint was clearly stipulated in a party program.
 If you are going to give power to some group of individuals should you not be aware what they stand for?

While talking with friends, family and others I heard several of them say they voted for a party that on some key issues has views that go against their best interests/points of view. Yet since these topics are not shouted out loudly by party leaders, the potential voters are not aware of them.
It to me feels like signing a contract you have not fully read, something most of us would agree is not very sensible.

Another aspect is that some say they cannot have any real influence. Less than half those entitled to vote did so yesterday, and that half caused a serious shift towards the more conservative right side of the political spectrum.
If the rest had voted, who knows what would have happened?

Your choices are your own, but shouldn't those choices have some logical, factual or ideological foundation?