Please don’t vote. At least, please don’t vote unless you know the policies of the candidate you’re voting for. As the primary season ends and candidates are selected, I hear from the usual suspects that everyone should get out and vote. Calls that will only grow louder when November comes and the normal Red vs. Blue battle happens once again.
However, voting isn’t helpful if you don’t know what you’re voting for; in fact, it can be quite harmful. Both of our major parties are big-tent groups with a wide variety of policy opinions, with the Democratic Party containing folks ranging from market liberals in the mold of Clinton to ardent socialists like Bernie and AOC.
Please, if you do vote in this primary and midterm, research the candidates and pick the ones whose policies match your own values, not the ones who are marketed as the most fervent members of team Blue or Red. Whatever your values are, vote for the people who represent you. If you don’t know who best represents you, don’t vote.
Asheville needs better representation that represents the values of the people living here, and as long as people vote party over policy, there won’t be a government here that actually feels responsible to the demands of the people rather than the party.
— Jeremiah Blake
Asheville
While this unaffiliated voter agrees with the wish for a more informed and thoughtful electorate, the Republican Party has done a fine job of simplifying that task for us. After the election of Barack Obama, although a few Republican candidates have mouthed moderation on the stump, their voting behavior in office has been almost monolithic, both in North Carolina and Washington, DC. The former GOP is no more. It has been replaced by Banana Republicanism with an agenda to undo the social progress of the past 170 years and institute a puritanical kleptocracy ruled by an iron, white male fist. Those of us not to the manor born will be taught to know our place, say, “Yes, sir!” and kiss the botox whenever necessary.
That said, there remains the question of who to vote for among candidates who still uphold democratic ideals. Their policy positions range from liberal to what was once the Republican mainstream. Vote and choose wisely.