About First Choice 2004 and "Choicework"


Most voters' guides compare the candidates. That's useful, but how can you decide who you want in office until you're sure about what you want that politician to do? And these days that's harder to figure out than it should be, particularly for young or first-time voters.

When politicians present their plans, they naturally play up the quick, easy, cheap part of their program and downplay the messy, expensive, risky parts. In reality, however, many problems don't get solved without facing harsh choices; the government can't avoid pleasing some people and offending others.

First Choice 2004 is designed to help you make the most of your vote by having strong, informed opinions about what those choices might be. With these guides, you can find out more about the problems facing the nation and be better armed when considering the plans politicians put forward.

With First Choice 2004, we're not claiming to have the "correct" solution to a problem. What you'll find here are some key facts along with three different points of view about how to address the issue. The points of view are drawn both from what the experts say about an issue and from what the public thinks about it, based on surveys and focus groups. We call this section "Choicework." Each point of view comes with the arguments for and against, along with some potential costs and tradeoffs - because every plan has both pros and cons, and a voter should face both honestly. We focus on what each problem means to the average person. And because Public Agenda isn't pushing a particular solution, we're not interested in sugarcoating any options or trashing other points of view.

That doesn't mean, by the way, that the broad choices we present are the only ways of dealing with a problem. Many people would mix and match from different perspectives, and you may have your own ideas we haven't considered. You can use the Create Your Own Choicework feature to help work out your own approach. We're also not suggesting that you should go looking for a candidate who agrees with you on every single issue. What we are suggesting is that it'll be easier to judge the candidates if you've considered where you want the country to go in the next four years - and what you're willing to do to get there.