The importance of "down ballot" voting

[hntnhole]

Lately we’re seeing attempts by Republicans to impose their restrictive pseudo-religious beliefs upon every other citizen (or, prospective citizens) in the US, regardless of how far-removed their version of religiosity is removed from the actual Message from which it supposedly derived. No religious belief-system is founded upon hating “the other”.  Only corruptions of an existing belief-system does that.  

 

We’ve already seen women’s reproductive rights taken away, after half a century of existence in the US.  Currently, there are 19 Attorney’s General, almost entirely In “red” States, attempting to

compel A.G’s in other “blue or purple” states to hand over records of women that have been forced to travel to receive medical attention for intensely personal reproductive care.  It hasn’t been enough for these red-state A.G’s to have medical care banned in their own states; now they’ve banded together to stick their long pointy noses into the personal medical business of their residents, with an eye to punishing those women who were forced to seek medical care outside of the states they resided in.

 

There are “red” states where one single person can get a celebrated work of literature banned from schools, county-wide if they object to some phraseology within the book.  It has already happened.  These are people who have substituted their so-called “religious” beliefs with a surrender to the siren-call of hatred for “the other”, based upon a charlatan’s constantly blaring call to selfishness on the grandest of scales.  

 

A breathtakingly politicized majority on the SCOTUS has handed down repression after repression against their political enemies, enriching themselves in the process to exponentially increase their personal wealth.  Senator Whitehouse may well get some remedial action through the Congress, and that’s at least something.  However, it’s easy to anticipate who the repressives running amok in the US will be coming after, once they’ve thoroughly digested their actions against women, minorities, immigrants.  

 

Are we - as gay men living /acting on the edge of social acceptance - so foolish as to believe we’re not on the repressionist’s list?  Do we actually think that we’ll be spared the hatemonger’s wrath?  

 

They would pay good money to watch us hang.  All of us.  Every single one of us they can reach.

 

Thus, it’s crucial - obviously - to vote, and vote to protect the women, disenfranchised, those aspiring to a better life in the US, every degree and variation of “the other”, not only because it’s the right and decent thing to do, but also because your rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is absolutely, 100% on the line.  

 

“Down-ballot” voting, aka “Straight-ticket” voting means that on election day we vote for every single position on the ballot.  We vote only for office-seekers that we’re confident will protect the rights of every threatened group, vote to expand rights of all the subgroups of Americans instead of those that would destroy us.  Merely voting for the higher offices - i.e. Presidential/

Vice Presidential offices, is not doing our job completely.  

 

In the event we don’t happen to know much about many of the County/State candidates, it’s easy to find out.  Merely contact your local political offices to find out which candidates, from the lowliest to the most exalted local offices, will reflect your positions on issues best.  Burying our future in laziness will only hasten the day the hatemongers come for us.  Maybe you’ve never voted for Progressives, Liberals, Democrats.  Maybe you’ve never been interested in politics.  Maybe you don’t believe we’re in the cross-hairs of the Republicans.  Please, please take part in your duty. Exercise your right to vote for candidates that will protect the rights of all.  

 

This is not the time to find out the hard way.

[hntnhole]

Moderator's Note: This was a duplicate post. I didn't want to delete it since there was an upvote.

 

 

[onlyraw]

I would agree that paying attention (and voting for) the down ballot races is very important 

as we are seeing in far too many places the most local elections can be truly important 

even if you don’t have kids - the school board will shape how the next generation thinks - they control what (and how) subjects are taught and what books are in the library 

and your state reps and senators…. While the democrats were busy fixating solely on winning the presidency- tge republicans were quietly winning state rep races - who then controlled tge re-districting ensuring they would then win the majority of congressional raves no matter what percentage of the state wide vote they got (just look at Wisconsin)

So yes - please learn about and vote for every position- no matter how seemingly insignificant 

[hntnhole]

3 hours ago, hntnhole said:

Moderator's Note: This was a duplicate post. I didn't want to delete it since there was an upvote.

Thanks, Moderator, for fixing my screw-up.  I couldn't figure out how to do it. 

[ktopper]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:44 PM, hntnhole said:

 

 

They would pay good money to watch us hang.  All of us.  Every single one of us they can reach.

 

 

A lot of them would also pay good money to get their worthless asses railed by a hard dick before voting to get rid of us.

[hntnhole]

6 hours ago, ktopper said:

A lot of them would also pay good money to get their worthless asses railed by a hard dick before voting to get rid of us.

That's for sure .... since they got women's health-care canceled, thus enraging millions of women, they'd surely vote to hang us all without a second thought. 

[DallasPozzible]

Agree strongly with most of the OP. It’s critical that we engage on local and state levels. I don’t agree that it’s always easy to figure out who the best choice is. In Dallas, our local/county elections are nonpartisan, and some campaigns are well practiced in obscuring the candidate’s real positions. That’s especially true in school board elections. 

Before voting, I always check the endorsements of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas and generally follow their recommendations. If you live in an urban area, you can likely find an LBGTQ or other progressive organization that screens candidates and can inform your choices.

On 7/21/2023 at 2:44 PM, hntnhole said:

Down-ballot” voting, aka “Straight-ticket” voting means that on election day we vote for every single position on the ballot.  

Straight-ticket voting isn’t same as down-ballot voting though. Straight ticket refers to voting straight down the ballot for all nominees of the same party. In most jurisdictions, that means straight-ticket voting is irrelevant in primary elections. In general elections, I always vote a Democratic straight ticket.

I understand the appeal of voting for person not party, I just think it’s a fool’s errand given our political system and the current political climate.

[BootmanLA]

Another point about down-ballot voting: those offices are often where the future good guys and bad guys in the big offices come from. The local town councilman makes a name for himself, then runs for mayor, then state representative, and so on, working his way up the chain. Supporting the good guys at the lower levels, so that they're encouraged to move up, and working to defeat the bad ones so they don't have a power base on which to expand, is important.

I strongly second the idea of looking for an LGBTQ or other progressive organization and their endorsements, if you're not sure for whom to vote. State/local party organizations aren't always useful, and sometimes can mask other agendas. 

[hntnhole]

On 9/29/2023 at 2:21 PM, DallasPozzible said:

Straight ticket refers to voting straight down the ballot for all nominees of the same party.

Of course.  That would logically extend to the "down-ballot" races (State or local positions), not just the Presidential/Veep, Senate/House nominees. 

My apologies for not being more clear in the first response.  

[BootmanLA]

Here's another point to remember about down-ballot voting.

"Jaws" takes place in the early 1970's (the book was published in February 1974, meaning it was written sometime well before that and almost certainly set in what was then "present day". The movie version came out in 1975.

Jaws 2 came out in 1978 (not based on a separate book), so we're talking at least 5-6 years between the first book's writing and the second film's creation.

And yet, the same stupid motherfucker idiot was still the mayor, all those years later, despite how much his royal fuck up over closing the beaches led to just how many deaths again?

THAT is what happens when you don't turn out to vote in local elections. And there are places, I'm sure, where that idiot would have been governor by about 1984.

[hntnhole]

First, thanks for the interesting responses.

Other than recently in Ft. L., my experience with "straight-ticket" voting stems from political activity back in Chicago, where the "Daley Machine" exerted political control far beyond the city limits (meaning in Springfield).  In the primaries, one had to vote for each individual candidate on the ballot (or not), but in the general, there was an option to vote "straight ticket", which automatically cast your vote for all the D's on the ballot, and none for the R's.  If there were one particular R that you wanted to vote for, you could, and then vote individually for the rest of the offices. 

If you did that though, you could anticipate hearing from your Ward Office too.  And it was the individual precinct-captains (or block-reps) that would get the responsibility to actually go ring the doorbell and have a "chat" with the individual.  More, everyone knew that the next time your cat ran up a tree and wouldn't come down, or your neighbor tried to move a fence a foot or three onto your property, or, or, or, the call to the fire department to get the cat down might take a few days instead of an hour or two.  The city inspectors might take a while to figure out the "fence" issue, or not.  

On election day, among other duties, each precinct captain went over to the Ward office around 4pm and got a print-out of who, in that particular precinct, had not yet voted.  And then we went to their house, rang the bell, and got them, offered them a ride over there and back, whatever it took.  If it was some other time of year, and a neighbor had an issue, they could always go over to the Ward office and plead their case.  There was always a conspicuous container somewhere around the Ward office to drop off a "thank you" when the issue was resolved, and I'm not talking Hallmark here.  Back when those old political "machines" held sway, it was with an iron grip.  

While that kind of power has faded away to a certain point, back when I was a precinct captain, there was a schlup of a guy always hanging around the Ward office, jeans/t-shirt, completely unremarkable, and today he's sitting in the House representing the Congressional District I lived in.  Play ball, do what you're told, and you might wind up in Washington.