5 Questions to Ask Before You Vote

Voting based on who will actually govern effectively is hard. It requires asking questions that go deeper than party labels, campaign slogans, and who “won” the last debate.

If you’re tired of representatives who perform for their base instead of solving problems, here are five questions to ask before you cast your vote. These aren’t about left or right—they’re about whether the person you’re voting for will actually do the job or just keep the fight going.

1. Does This Candidate Treat Opponents as Evil?

Disagreement is normal in a democracy. Dehumanization is not.

Pay attention to language. Do they criticize ideas and policies, or do they question motives and character? Do they leave room for good-faith disagreement?

When leaders portray opponents as evil or illegitimate, they make cooperation politically risky. When they criticize respectfully, they preserve the possibility of working together later.

The tone they model becomes the tone the system absorbs.

2. Does This Candidate Build Coalitions — or Just Rally a Base?

In safe districts, especially in primaries, candidates can win by appealing to a narrow slice of highly motivated voters. But governing requires broader buy-in.

Look for evidence that they’ve worked across factions, communities, or even party lines. Have they collaborated with people who don’t agree with them on everything? Have they supported bipartisan efforts, even when it wasn’t flashy?

You don’t need a candidate who abandons their principles. You need one who knows how to build a majority around them.

Coalitions create durable policy. Echo chambers create stalemates.

3.  Are They Running to Solve Problems or to ‘Own’ the Other Side?

It’s become normal to campaign on humiliation. To “own” the libs or the cons.

That kind of rhetoric generates clicks, donations, and applause lines. But it rarely generates policy.

Ask yourself: Is this candidate primarily motivated by fixing something specific (lowering costs, improving schools, strengthening infrastructure) or by defeating and embarrassing the other side?

There’s a difference between strong disagreement and performative antagonism. One is about outcomes. The other is about optics.

4. Does This Candidate Explain Trade-Offs Honestly?

Every policy decision involves trade-offs. Budget priorities compete. Regulations have costs and benefits. No serious proposal is purely upside.

Candidates who pretend otherwise may win applause, but governing gets harder when reality intrudes.

Look for leaders who can say: “Here’s what this will improve — and here’s what it may cost.” That kind of transparency builds trust and invites mature discussion.

Problem-solving requires acknowledging complexity. Oversimplification fuels polarization.

5. Will This Candidate Lower the Temperature?

Conflict drives engagement. Outrage raises money. But high temperature politics makes collaboration nearly impossible.

Ask yourself: If this person wins, does the overall tone improve or intensify? Do they have a track record of calming tensions, or amplifying them?

Lowering the temperature doesn’t mean being passive. It means channeling disagreement into structured negotiation instead of constant escalation.

Democracy works best when intensity is directed toward solutions, not spectacle.

Your Vote Is Your Power

None of these questions require you to abandon your convictions. They simply expand the criteria.

We don’t just elect policy preferences. We elect behaviors. We elect incentives. We elect the kind of political culture we want to live in.

If voters consistently reward candidates who escalate, the system will supply more escalation. If we reward cooperation and problem-solving, we’ll see more of that too.

Before you vote, pause.

Ask not just, “Do I agree with them?”

Ask, “Will they make cooperation easier or harder?”

That shift may feel small. But over time, it can reshape what politics rewards — and what it produces.

Your vote has power. Use it on someone who will use theirs to get something done.

—Alex Buscemi (abuscemi@buildersmovement.org)

Art by Matthew Lewis

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