In this presidential election of 2024, I’m an undecided voter.  I know what I want to vote for, but I will decide the last day who.  Because so much may happen before November 5, I’m trying to stay in the day.

I hear many saying they’ll vote out of fear and hatred toward this candidate or that party’s platform.   To avoid negativity, I prefer to stand up for things I believe in.  So here is what I’m trying to figure out:  which party and candidate will do the most good, and the least harm, for the most people, in the long run?

A few things are clear to me.  Experiences of kindness, freedom, courage, honesty, cooperation, growth, and gratitude are always good, for all of us, for the long haul.  I want leaders who have chosen and created these experiences in their personal history, schedule, budget, career, family, as well as their politics.  I want that to be me too.

What does the most harm is just the opposite – hate (cold or hot), bondage, fear, lies, divisiveness, decay, and self-pity.  These are always bad for us, at least in the long run.  To me, doing bad is a lifestyle of competitive consuming, that comes from a mindset of draining emptiness.  Believing there’s only so much money, popularity, and security to go around makes us want to take those things from others, and see them as losers.  We think dog eats dog, and might makes right. 

Life works better when we do just the opposite – a lifestyle of cooperative creation, that comes from a mindset of overflowing fullness.  That’s believing that the more we give, the more we will be able to give.  The more we take in, the more we will give back.  Together with  higher powers of our choice, we can create more money, popularity, and security for everybody.  Person feeds person, and as Lincoln kept saying, right makes might.  I want a servant leader like that, because I want to be a servant leader like that. 

Both of these positive and negative belief systems are self-fulfilling prophecies.  We can’t change our lifestyle until we change our mindset, and nobody does that without help from others.  Mindfulness training and cognitive behavior modification can be learned in counseling, and from free online resources, here and elsewhere. 

So I will wait and see who’s still standing in November.  But the one I will want to take care of me and my family will be the one who believes in overflowing fullness, the one who asks me to cooperate more, and create more, for everybody.  Give me a government that makes me both feel good and do good.   Both for myself and others.  Both for my generation, and for our grandparents and grandchildren.  For all Americans, and for the world. 

Dr. Paul Schmidt is a practicing psychologist doing research and education about personal well-being.