As November 4th rolls around the corner and the culmination of this historic election gets closer, I continue to ask myself “what are the most important issues to me as a voter?”  There are so many that sometimes I get dizzy while trying to discern between what is important and urgent and what is not important or urgent.  But decisions must be made and we all must do our own pros and cons analysis as to who would best represent our interests after being elected or re-elected to office.

I have reached that point.

Not the economy but our finance system, stupid.  Our country’s finance system has been utilized to exploit the uninformed, the uneducated and the poor for the advantage of the few not the many; and of course, this has resulted in the mess we are in today. And even though, some folks are yelling at the top of the lungs that a revamp of our economic system would take many years to achieve and that we should focus on more urgent matters; the process must begin on November 5th to cure what ills us today and to proactively prevent future calamity.

Immigration has been placed in the backburner by both candidates.  However, millions of undocumented immigrants continue to toil daily and keep America moving while being exploited by corrupt employers; abused by authorities and used as scapegoats for every ill that offends or ravages our country.  Those of us that are either first generation Americans; have become naturalized citizens or just feel strongly about the humane treatment of individuals have to cautiously weight all candidates’ views on this important and what seems to be to the candidates “not so urgent” issue.

Finally and surprisingly, the last issue that I will use as a gauge to choose who will receive my vote on November 4th is one that I didn’t think would be at the top of my list, but realized that it is one of most crucial matters in our lifetime.  Article I, section 8, clause 11 of the United States Constitution expressively grants the power to declare war to the legislature.  Our Founding Fathers painstakingly crafted our constitution placing the power to decide when our country should engage another nation aggressively – and thus putting Americans in harm’s way – on the representatives of the people.  This prevents our nation from entering into unnecessary conflicts and falling prey to the whims of one person.  For many years now our representatives have acquiesced use of their power to declare war to the executive branch.  This has resulted in several unjustified conflicts including the Iraq quagmire. The legislature must take back the power to declare war and function as the decision making body that the Framers intended them to be and not as an advisory committee to a monarch; otherwise we will find ourselves in more conflicts with more blood being shed – both American and foreign.

Choose wisely.