I'm a Republican, or perhaps a Repulicanist (in the classical sense), while I prefer to vote for a Republican, I won't vote for a bad candidates.
I got heavily involved in local politics leading up and during the election. We had a group of bad actors, Republicans, who were trying to take over our County School Board, I and others formed a tri-partisan coalition, and worked to block the bad candidates, and elected a Democrat, a Republican, and one unaffiliated candidate to the School Board.
As part of that I was at early voting locations in my county for several hours each day, sometimes at multiple locations depending on coverage. I talked to thousands of voters, and handed out thousands of cards - on election day alone I think I handed out close to 400 cards as a poll greeter. For reference in North Carolina we can get within about 75 feet of the entry to the polling place.
As part of that volunteering I talked to other campaigners from all parties and persuasions. As long as people were remotely civil, I'd talk politely and listen.
It struck me that the Democrat campaigners were caught up in a handful of wedge issues that didn't have broad persuasive power. Poll after poll in North Carolina showed that persuadable voters were making their votes based on economics as their first priority, and in a few races character was a huge determinant - look up our Republican candidate Mark Robinson, if you're not familiar with him. I got a lot of pushback from one sector of Republicans, when I suggested he should drop of out of the race immediately.
I shared my polling dat with the Democrat campaigers, but they couldn't seem to get outside of their owns kin, reproductive rights was their number one priority and that's what they focused on - even though it didn't have persuasive power for the voters they encountered.
Many people when they first approach politics think it's a matter attacking a position or a person, getting into an argument, the point is persuade those who can be persuaded, and their are finite limits to how far an opinion can be shifted in a finte time window. Part of effective persuasion is having some empathy for the concerns of the person you are talking to. Part of effective persuasion is that most people seek out confirmation silos - IE they go to places for news or opinions that tell them they are good people for the opinions they already hold.
My concern is that people will become more cocooned or segmented, and will loose the ability to have rational conversations about issues that effect them and they can impact. I do some local amateur reporting for civics and governance, and the more I do the more objectively try to write so that the reporting can be broadly accessible. Though some have complained that I'm not partisan enough.
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I appreciate you sharing all this with me, I will in turn be very transparent about my politics as well.
I consider myself to lean libertarian on most social issues, but believe that a true libertarian society is not possible at scale, and thus we are stuck with half functioning systems.
Most of the time empathy leads me to side with people on the left, but I also find myself having no issues pointing out their flawed solutions to obvious problems we should be attempting to fix.
The last time I voted, I was a registered republican myself, but mostly because where I lived, Florida, had become a red state, and I was of the naive (i think like this today) idea that my vote mattered. So, I should try to pick a good people. (closed primaries)
What I seem to have concluded when it comes to all things political, is that most people agree on most issues, but the divisive nature of our politics only allows for people to concentrate on being a loyal member of a team.
There are studies that show that people simply vote the way the identify, regardless of policy. And this is something I have a really hard time accepting as the status quo.
As you might guess, I don't vote anymore. It's my protest to how the monopoly board has been setup. The false sense of choice between two mafias bought and owned by Billionaires and corporations sickens me to my core.
So these days, I have no team, and I think that it might remain so for the rest of my life. I owe loyalty to no political party.
We have similar thoughts. I mostly focus on local politics these days since that's what I have a reasonable chance off having some affect on. We struggle with apathy and complexity, and with the million distractions that gnaw at people for attention.
I understand your position on voting in the general case, you may want to reconsider that at least for local races where your vote or voice could have some impact on policing, property taxes, education - or even just the management of fundamental public services. Parties can quickly become clubs, without coherent ideology or purpose beyond electing the people with the correct branding and logos.
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