It is 83 days until the next U.S. congressional midterm election.
I’ve been preaching “vote Democrat” throughout this series and, frankly, that bothers me a little bit.
Prior to 2016, I had never been a straight-ticket voter. Even had I voted for everyone in a particular party, I would have voted for each individually; I never agreed with voting for party over person.
(Should you not be familiar with straight-ticket voting, my home state of Texas is one of few which allow voters to choose a party-line option on their ballots, such as simply voting for all the Democrats with a single mark. This fall’s election will be the final time that opportunity will be offered in Texas. For purposes of this article, however, let us assume the definition includes anyone who would automatically vote for all the members of one party.)
The question I posed at the end of yesterday’s post was, “Do you have to only vote for Democrats?” I answered, “No.”
Sure, I keep telling you to vote Democrat because that’s the safest thing to do. However, if you’ve done your due diligence and you’ve found a Republican candidate who truly cares about other people and he or she is running against a Democrat who is a weak representative of your beliefs, then, sure, vote for the Republican.
If that’s not the case, then vote Democrat (not Independent or third party; which we’ll discuss in a future article) and know you’re likely even doing Republicans a favor voting against them.
Consider this tweet from Bruce Bartlett, who served as a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official under George H.W. Bush:
“The ESSENTIAL precondition for Republican reform is defeat–large enough and enough times that is (sic) cannot be blamed on bad candidates, lack of money, bad luck etc. The party must know that it cannot win without reform. Only then will it reform.”
We need the Republicans to clean up their act, to move away from extreme, prejudicial, hurtful politics. I believe we need at least two strong parties, but the GOP is hurtling toward oblivion as it ostracizes one group of people after another.
So, help Republicans reach the bottom so maybe, in another election or two, they can begin becoming a helpful presence in this country.
Steve Martaindale 
A Republican friend has told me that she and a number of Republican friends have committed to voting a straight Democratic ticket this year in order to send a message to their party. I do hope that people will read about all candidates, all the way down the ballot. This state has elected and re-elected a judge who has been censured by her peers and by the US Supreme Court, because they don’t bother to check out down-ballot races.
We elected an attorney general who has been under indictment for securities fraud and is running for a second term. This may have happened because people voted a straight R ticket.
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