Voting For the Best Candidate
Yes, your side is the best side. Why can't the other side recognize this?
Voting For the Best Candidate
Who is the best candidate? Democrat? Republican?
Are you a party loyalist? If you are a party loyalist, I bet I can explain why you are. You are a loyalist to your party because if we don’t all support your party, then that other party is going to take over. They are going to ignore the constitution and the law and do just whatever they want.
Your party, on the other hand, cares about the people. Your party is there to protect us from authoritarian government and corrupt political practices. Your party is trying to protect the middle class from facing extinction by lowering taxes and creating affordable housing.
How’d I do? Did I come reasonably close to explaining why you’re a party loyalist? Consider this; everything I said is just a repeat of what politicians in both parties say incessantly.
What!!!! No, no! My party cares. It’s the other party that is out of control! If those other people, those fools who aren’t as smart as us, would just listen to reason, they’d see how their party is playing them as useful idiots.
I hear that from democrats. I hear that from republicans. Which side is right? It has to be one or the other, right? No, that certainly is not the case. Simple logic says they can both be wrong. They can both be what they accuse the other party of being. Well, certainly one party is the party of reduced government, and the other wants to mushroom government into a totalitarian state, right? That’s what they tell you, but that’s not the truth. Party loyalists might believe the crap they are told. The rest of us do not.
In spite of what you are led to believe by media, party loyalty is not a big thing in the USA. Why would it be? Our country, We the People, did not intend to form a central government controlled by political parties. Most Americans do not support either party. Imagine your world, apart from media and politics. Do you get along with most people? Or do you and people around you regularly confront each other over…anything? Probably not. Yet, you almost certainly interact with people from the ‘other’ party on a regular basis, and have no problem with it. Do you even know the party, if they have one, of your doctor, dentist, baby sitter, grocery clerk, grocery customer, auto mechanic, plumber, gardener, etc? Do you care? Isn’t your one concern that they do their work well? How do half of them become horrible people when you watch the news?
If you are like the vast majority of people, life outside of politics, outside of media huckstering, is very livable. Perhaps here is the dividing line: If you put your own mind to solving your problems and resolving your issues, you have little use for a political party. But if you feel that your issues are beyond your capabilities, then you might be a party loyalist. You might want someone else to handle things for you. I would suggest that party loyalists, of either party, are born followers. I see little distinction between the two parties in that regard.
According to AI, which is, after all, occasionally correct, “About 47% of registered voters in the U.S. have declared a party affiliation, with many showing strong loyalty to their respective parties. However, a significant number of voters, nearly half, identify as independents, indicating a growing trend away from traditional party loyalty.”
That’s right, you party loyalists; combined you don’t make up half of the electorate. And notice that, of the 47% loyalists, “many” show strong loyalty. By my math, that means that many of the 47% do not have strong party loyalty. Personally, I intermittingly register republican or democrat in each primary because, in my state I have to register for one or the other to vote in a primary. So I am part of the 47%, but I’m about as disloyal as it gets. And there are many who do the same as me. So, how many voters are true party loyalists? Maybe 25%. And that 25% gets split between democrats and republicans. So, if you are a loyalist to your party, you are aligned with perhaps 12 or 13% of the other voters.
But wait! It gets worse! All of the above is just a measure of registered voters. Think of all the people who don’t vote because they fundamentally don’t give a damn. Oh, but they don’t count, right? Wrong. They have the same rights as you do. They have a right to freedom from excessive government. Well then, they should participate in the process in order to have an influence. To say that is to say that people who despise politics should participate in politics. I’m sorry, but I can’t support that. People who despise politics should be able to stay out of politics.
So, who is the best candidate? That’s an open question, of course. But it is safe to say that the candidate that best represents the interests of the American people is not a party loyalist. And that means that the candidate that best represents the interests of the American people is neither republican nor democrat. Think about that, the next time you vote.
This is genius! So many people have said exactly what you just did- but, at least in my mind, you said it better than the bulk of them. I want to talk more about this when we Skype later today!
The greatest evil in the American elections system is the party box on the ballots. As long as the party box is on the ballots, a third of the electorate will check that box, and the hacks and hucksters, hustlers and hod-carriers are going to stay in office, lining their own pockets and ignoring all but the biggest noisemakers and donors, the spectacles and the exceptions to every rule.
Time for the party box to be removed. But the parties insist they must be there because they run the elections. Thus, the hacks and hucksters, hustlers and hod-carriers are going to stay in office forever.
Some revolution we had, George. Too bad we abandoned what you fought for when we let parties exist.