On the back page of a recent Xpress, there was an ad from the North Carolina Democratic candidates for office. It said: “Protect Your Rights, Voice, & Future: Vote Democrat for NC House.” And yet, it was the North Carolina Democratic Party that made the North Carolina Green Party go to court to get ballot access this year. How is that protecting people’s voices and rights?
On the national level, the Democratic Party admitted in a court case in Florida (2017) that it has the right to pick its own presidential candidate, no matter who won the primary elections. They claim they have the right to rig their own primaries, and I believe they did exactly that in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
That is anti-democratic in my opinion.
But don’t think that the Republican Party is any better! We have spent countless hours and dollars fighting the North Carolina Republicans because of their efforts to create extreme gerrymandered districts. And on the national level, the Republican Party has engaged in repeated attempts at voter suppression.
Add all that to the fact that dark money campaign contributions from corporate interests go to both major parties, which results in greatly suppressed voters’ voices. I believe what we’ve got here in the USA is a great deal of election fraud. The Republican claims of “voter fraud” are totally bogus.
A political party that kicks third parties off the ballot is suppressing people’s voices. It is also anti-democratic. I suppose the ad in the Xpress was referencing abortion rights, and I totally agree that women’s uteruses are not state-owned real estate for the government to control. But I have also noticed that Roe v. Wade was decided about 50 years ago, and Democrats have totally failed to codify that ruling into law. They seem to want to keep it as a campaign issue. To put it mildly, that is not helpful.
I am an independent voter, and I don’t feel the Democrats or the Republicans represent my voice, protect anyone’s rights or anyone’s future. I don’t feel we are in danger of losing our democracy — I feel it is long gone because of these behaviors and choices.
In the future, I recommend that people vote as if those F-35s were dropping Raytheon bombs on your home — as they have in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria this year (by Israel). Vote as if those F-35s being outfitted in Italy to carry nuclear bombs might actually do that one day soon.
I voted for Matthew Hoh for the U.S. Senate. He was a candidate from the N.C. Green Party. He was the one person on the ballot who would have tried to stop all our useless war-making, climate destruction and political posturing. I believed he would have represented my voice and my choices and all of our futures.
— Susan Oehler
Asheville
It’s absolutely laughable (not) to hear local officials stand up for causes/events they cannot control at all–such as Roe v. Wade and the War in Ukraine…and then watch these same officials sit silently by while locals have their neighborhoods destroyed with yet another car-centric development and to see our town handed over to strangers. Shame shame shame. After the Sierra Club endorsements were gifted to the establishment without even interviewing all candidates, I’ve left the Democratic party too.
“I voted for Matthew Hoh for the U.S. Senate. He was a candidate from the N.C. Green Party.” ….great, you voted to defeat Cheri Beasley and helped elect the ultra-MAGA candidate Budd… our next US Senator. I’m quite sure you’ll be nothing short of ecstatic with his nonstop efforts to protect your “rights, voice and future” over the next six years. Personally, I’ve come to the realization -belatedly and sadly- that those on the woke far left are as clueless and and non-thinking as our lovely MAGA folks on the whacko far right. Well, enjoy your next six years of progress with your man Budd. sigh.
See, the thing is – Beasley would not have been any better in my opinion.
But, feel free to keep knocking the third party voters. I’m sure your efforts to suppress democracy will (one day) WIN THE DAY!
Susan, when you ramble all over the place you lose anyone who might be influenced by a portion of what you say.
Anyone opposed to building fighter jets given the actual world we live in is insanely naive. I would never vote for anyone you recommend on that basis alone.
I do hope you realize that those fighter jets are destroying our climate with all the carbon they emit. In my insane naivete, I have hopes of a livable planet not suffering extreme weather events all the time. To keep going down this path and not changing seems like a total nightmare to me.
And those sure can drop a lot of bombs and cause a lot of human suffering, but they consistently fail to win the US any wars in over 70 years. Not that they won’t keep trying.