It’s time for an attitude adjustment

Over a 62-year period of voting for public officials, I have developed a set of criteria for evaluating a candidate. With order of importance varying with the office, they are character, competence, knowledge, experience, responsibility, empathy, morality, issues, and adherence to facts and truth.

No known public official has ever met all my criteria. Only one has failed all of them.

About 46% of voters in 2016 voted for the one person who failed all. Whatever their criteria may have been, I will not disdain or dislike them. They include nearly all my extended family, whom I love.

For years, it has puzzled me as to how we have such different priorities. One characteristic that seems to be key is that I have a compulsion toward (in the wording of stratfor.com) “intelligence over news” and (in the words of Paul Harvey) “the rest of the story.”

Good people can adopt notions they would disdain if they took time to examine their origin and validity. As Calvin (in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes) says, “Enmity sells.” Perhaps if others sought a wider range of information beyond certain TV and radio shows, and social media that specialize in spreading disinformation and enmity, they would realize how incompatible are some of these media with their firm conviction that they are guided by the teachings of the New Testament.

Especially during elections, TV, radio and social media are awash with false or out-of-context attributions or assertions about others. Intelligent voting requires a person to acquire correct information.

We all need nonconfrontational encouragement to apply filters that distinguish propaganda from news, truth and facts. We need to recognize our unhelpful prejudices and learn to think constructively about solutions to problems. There are numerous websites that can help with filtration.

Perhaps we all need some attitude adjustment, including myself.

RICHARD L. BLAKE Santa Fe