This, too, will be my final response. In a democracy, or a Constitutional Republic, a difference of opinion is both expected and welcome. The right to have your say by how you vote is one of the highest freedoms we enjoy - unless you live in a ruby red state trying to disenfranchise your voice illegitimately.
I do not begrudge you your stance on straight party voting. You seem to have done your proverbial homework (even though it is not for me to say in a one to one dialog like this), and have come by your opinions honestly. I am not being condescending, I admire anyone willing to put in the time to have an informed opinion.
In the long run, you are not my target audience when I refer to those who vote blindly for their preferred tribe. IDK if you read the WaPo but there is a sub-demographic of commenters there that just repeat the major talking points of a story, putting what they consider key phrases in all caps, bold or both, sign off - almost always in all caps here - "REMEMBER VOTE ONLY BLUE IN 24" and then sit back to count the likes.
Anyway, I sincerely wish you luck on keeping Ohio at the very least purple and surviving JD Vance. BTW, my family originally hailed from NE Ohio; mostly Cleveland and Youngstown.
In normal times, I would agree with you that voting based on the candidates platform is the way to go. However in the current climate, voting for even a moderate R, if he/she wins,will mean another vote for a Republican Majority Leader, who will be forced to pander to the extreme right wing like MyKevin, even if he/she is not an extremist. Sure you might get Dinos like Manchin, but at least you won't get a cowardly Mitch waiting for the Ds to get rid of Trump for him
This, too, will be my final response. In a democracy, or a Constitutional Republic, a difference of opinion is both expected and welcome. The right to have your say by how you vote is one of the highest freedoms we enjoy - unless you live in a ruby red state trying to disenfranchise your voice illegitimately.
I do not begrudge you your stance on straight party voting. You seem to have done your proverbial homework (even though it is not for me to say in a one to one dialog like this), and have come by your opinions honestly. I am not being condescending, I admire anyone willing to put in the time to have an informed opinion.
In the long run, you are not my target audience when I refer to those who vote blindly for their preferred tribe. IDK if you read the WaPo but there is a sub-demographic of commenters there that just repeat the major talking points of a story, putting what they consider key phrases in all caps, bold or both, sign off - almost always in all caps here - "REMEMBER VOTE ONLY BLUE IN 24" and then sit back to count the likes.
Anyway, I sincerely wish you luck on keeping Ohio at the very least purple and surviving JD Vance. BTW, my family originally hailed from NE Ohio; mostly Cleveland and Youngstown.
fnord
In normal times, I would agree with you that voting based on the candidates platform is the way to go. However in the current climate, voting for even a moderate R, if he/she wins,will mean another vote for a Republican Majority Leader, who will be forced to pander to the extreme right wing like MyKevin, even if he/she is not an extremist. Sure you might get Dinos like Manchin, but at least you won't get a cowardly Mitch waiting for the Ds to get rid of Trump for him