Thread by @DemWrite

Someone sent me this question:

“Should I be voting straight ticket for Democrats or looking at each candidate individually?”

My answer: Yes. As in, both.

/1

See, despite how I may seem on here, I’m not an insanely partisan person. So when I received this question, my base instincts were conflicting my contextual instincts.

The fact is, you should always vet every single candidate to the best of your ability in a perfect world. But many people don’t have the time, confidence, or mastery of political issues to make their own nuanced determinations. This is why political parties are useful.

(If I know I care about certain issues and there is one group of politicians who more or less see things the way I do, I can feel fairly confident that people in that group are going to govern more or less the way I’d like. That’s useful.)

In this age, however, one party has veered way off the tracks. The GOP no longer has qualms about attacking our democratic institutions, creating social fissures or intentionally misleading voters. They care about maintaining power and transferring wealth to the 1%.

So: Yes. Please do vet each candidate. It’s good practice. But if you vote for a Republican, the Dem better be extremely loathsome, b/c the GOP deserves to be put out to pasture.

So: Yes. Please vote a straight Dem ticket unless you have an EXTREMELY compelling reason not to.

I have yet to encounter a race where there is such a reason.