Money and the Straight Party Line<\/p>\n
True confession:\u00a0 I am a lifelong Democrat.\u00a0 Ever since my Mom pinned a JFK for President button on my sweater in 1960, I\u2019ve supported Democrats, worked for Democrats, and campaigned for Democrats.\u00a0 Just wanted to get that off my chest.<\/p>\n
There are a couple of times in the forty-four years of voting (I\u2019m pretty sure I never missed an election \u2013 even drove back to Cincinnati one time to vote) I\u2019ve actually voted for a Republican.\u00a0 It was always personal, in the sense that I knew the Republican running, and that they were a better choice than the Democrat, and it was invariably for a local office.<\/p>\n
In the old days (and probably still in some cities) you could pull a lever and vote for every candidate of one party or the other.\u00a0 Straight party voters didn’t make individual choices, they simply supported \u201cdonkeys or elephants.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 It was a lot quicker.<\/p>\n
But the more typical American voter reserves the ability to choose \u201cby person\u201d in each office.\u00a0 Most Americans vote \u201cfor the man, or for the woman\u201d rather than by political affiliation. \u00a0Many spend a great deal of time actually studying the ballot, knowing the candidates, and choosing individuals.\u00a0 We have been taught from our earliest lessons the power of a single person to change history.\u00a0 Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King, and more recently the re-telling of the Alexander Hamilton story:\u00a0 all were individuals who powerfully made a difference in America\u2019s story.\u00a0 From that tradition we see the individual as crucial in the government, and want that individual to hold office, choose the path of government, and make a difference.<\/p>\n
So having made that seemingly obvious case, I\u2019m going to tell you to do something different.\u00a0 For Federal and State offices, you should vote straight party line this time.<\/p>\n
Our Federal and State governments have followed a Constitutional model, with three separate branches of government.\u00a0 As such, we have always depended on the tensions among those competing branches to serve as a check to the power of the government.<\/p>\n
This is as opposed to a Parliamentary system, where the legislature chooses the executive who then chooses the judiciary.\u00a0 In a parliamentary system the political party is ascendant: \u00a0a majority in the legislature means control of all of the branches of government.\u00a0 In countries with a parliamentary form of government, Party is everything.<\/p>\n
Today our Constitutional governments at both federal and state levels are acting more like parliamentary bodies.\u00a0 This is in part because of the power of money; to hold office even at a district level it costs huge amounts to win.\u00a0 The influence of those who can provide that money is such that fealty to their causes has become the primary factor for a candidate.<\/p>\n
Ask Susan Collins, whose position on abortion absolutely made Brett Kavanaugh an unacceptable choice. But because she was a Republican, depending on Republican funds to continue in office, she did the \u201cmental gymnastics\u201d of convincing herself that Kavanaugh would leave Roe v Wade as \u201csettled law.\u201d\u00a0 There is nothing in his judicial history to show that will be true, and everything to show he would support overturning the decision.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t matter, because Collins couldn\u2019t stand against him.\u00a0 She literally couldn\u2019t afford to.<\/p>\n
Money has placed the three branches of government into the control of one party, both here in Ohio, and in the United States.\u00a0 Voting for the \u201cgood\u201d member of a party that doesn\u2019t represent your ideals, is simply putting the other party in power.\u00a0 Individuals don\u2019t exercise power; at least not for long.\u00a0 While we have the trappings of a Federal system with checks and balances, we have practically become a Parliamentary system.<\/p>\n
Our party tensions are narrowly balanced, with the Presidential popular vote in the negative for the winning candidate, the Senate 51-49, and the Supreme Court 5-4.\u00a0 In the State of Ohio, where one party has almost unanimous control, the actual voting patterns are near even as well.<\/p>\n
As such, you need to vote your party, not the individual.\u00a0 To put the system back into balance, and to have your ideas represented, you currently don\u2019t have the luxury of voting for \u201cthe person.\u201d\u00a0 Someday, when we find a way to get the money (on both sides) out of the system; in a world where ideas, not cash, make a difference, we should go back to our historic view of individualism:\u00a0 but not today.<\/p>\n
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