Back in 2012 I wrote an article explaining why I planned to vote the straight Democratic ticket as I plan to do on November 6. The following excerpt still holds true today, in my opinion :
Parties are a fact of political life whether we like them or not. The great American historian Gary Wills put it well in a New York Review of Books essay when he chastised a liberal friend for abandoning support for the President:
“Obama was never a prince. None of them are,” he wrote. “The mistake behind all this is a misguided high-mindedness that boasts, ‘I vote the man, not the party.’ This momentarily lifts the hot-air balloon of self-esteem by divorcing the speaker from political taintedness and compromise. But the man being voted for, no matter what he says, dances with the party that brought him, dependent on its support, resources and clientele. That is why one should always vote on the party, instead of the candidate. The party has some continuity of commitment, no matter how compromised. What you are really voting for is the party’s constituency.”
This, I believe, is the hard truth behind all democratic elections. It’s a tough one for those of us who value our independence to swallow.
Parties are vehicles for putting ideas into action. And ideas that drive public policy matter a great deal to millions of people at the margins of society – the poor, the sick, the unemployed. They matter to our soldiers and our veterans, to women, to our seniors and to our schoolchildren.
And I believe that for every one of those groups Democratic ideas are better than Republican ones. By contrast, when I read the GOP platform, I don’t see myself, my community or my values there.
This is a bad principle. Especially when Republicans follow it (think Kavanaugh, Moore, Trump, Saudi Arabia). We can’t expect Republicans to occasionally demonstrate some moral fiber if we don’t too.
This is a bad principle since parties do not, in fact, demonstrate a “continuity of commitment,” as you suggest. In fact, today’s Democrats are as far from FDR as one could imagine.
This is a bad principle because parties are anything but vehicles for putting principles into action. The 2017 MassDems convention enshrined all sorts of highfalutin’ progressive principles into the platform. The actions of the Democratic-controlled legislature made a joke of the platform.
On this last point — action — I must again disagree. Our Democratic State Auditor, Suzanne Bunp, has done nothing to keep the state police or sheriffs honest — which is why I am NOT voting a straight Democratic ticket. The Green Party guy, Jed Stamas, is getting my vote this year,
If we want responsible action, we can’t always reward lazy, entitled bon-bon chewing functionaries because they simply wear a blue campaign button.
The Democratic Party proudly embodies the inspiring legacy of FDR’s New Deal and saving democracy from Fascist destruction. Contrary to your assertion that “todays Democrats are as far from FDR as one could imagine.”
“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nest.” FDR’s annual message to Congress in the State of the Union, 1/6/41
As is so often the case, I see a middle ground between uncaffeine and Fred. I might have chosen different wording for the thread-starter — something along the lines of “Why I vote values rather than people”.
I think both are correct, because I think there are two very different organizations at play. I think that Fred has the national organization in mind when he advises to vote the party. I think you (uncaffeine) are absolutely correct about the local Massachusetts Democratic Party. It is an organization in name only, and so far as I can tell has no actual values (beyond self-perpetuation). It certainly has no relevance to Massachusetts governance.
The national GOP and the national Democratic Party are organizations that reflect starkly different values and priorities. Their respective candidates, officials, and voters reflect these values and priorities. Mr. Kavanaugh, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Trump, and Saudi Arabia reflect the values and priorities of GOP voters and therefore the party.
A voter who truly values women, minorities, facts, rationality, and rest of whatever the GOP pays lip service to will never vote to support any of the aforementioned people or nations. That voter will instead support almost any Democrat in national office (with a handful of notable exceptions) — because in campaigns for national office, the Democrat is almost always more committed to the values that make civilization and representative democracy strong than his or her GOP counterpart.
I follow a different heuristic from Fred while voting. I vote for a candidate only if I know the person and know that they reflect my values.
I can’t ever remember knowing both a GOP and a Democratic candidate and voting for the GOP candidate. I blanked Ed King, John Silber and Martha Coakley in their respective gubernatorial campaigns. I don’t remember any other elections where the Democratic nominee was totally unacceptable to me.
My bottom line is that I can’t imagine that I’ll ever vote for a GOP candidate — never have, never will. I vote for the Democrat when I know them, and leave the ballot blank or write in “Mickey Mouse” when I don’t.
I agree with conservatives like Bret Stephens, Max Booth, Bill Kristol, David Frum, and Jennifer Rubin that the GOP has to be defeated at every level this year in order to have and hope of salvaging the two party system from the cancer of Donald Trump. Like Tom, I believe there are bad Democratic incumbents in this state who will not earn my vote. There are no Republicans who have earned mine.
Your Vote Matters: Vote D for democracy. Vote R for Russia. From a friend : If it didn’t you wouldn’t have Republicans trying to suppress it. If it didn’t you wouldn’t have billionaires trying to buy it. If it didn’t you wouldn’t have Russians trying to hack it. Your vote matters. Use it in November.