My Civic Duty — Apparently
In the run up to the midterm elections, propaganda and BS is running rampant. In support of this assessment, I submit to you a mailing I received from the “Center for Essential Information”. On the front it boldly claims: “For this election, please do your civic duty and vote the candidate, not the party.” Inside it explains that THEIR records show most Americans vote for candidates from both parties and gives my hometown a score of D+ for voting for candidates vs. the party. What a crock!
It’s been quite a while since I took Civics in high school. Yes, Civics not Social Studies, I’m that old. Still, I don’t recall anything about my duty to vote for individual candidates vs. the candidate’s party, so some InterWeb searches were needed to see what’s current.
Most of the results for Civic Duty included such things as obeying the law, paying taxes, serving on a jury when summoned and registering with the Selective Service. Voting itself is generally considered a voluntary responsibility vs. a civic duty, which may explain why American elections have such a dismal participation rate. But nowhere is there ANY inkling of a civic duty to vote for the candidate vs. the party.
Do most American’s vote the candidate vs. the party? I’m going to say no, especially in the current hyper political environment. At least I can’t find any evidence that they do or ever have. That might not have always been the case and I know from my own voting history I’ve voted for candidates of both parties. But I believe the influence of the party has overtaken the influence of the candidate. Certainly, no viable candidate can be elected these days without the power (money) of one of the major parties behind them. Even those who claim to be ‘independent’ are still funded by their closest aligned party.
I found a quote from the New Yorker in 2012 that seems to describe the situation rather nicely.
“[T]he 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. That will determine priorities when it comes to appointments, legislative pressure, and things like nominating Supreme Court justices.”
But does that R or D next to a candidate’s name tell the whole story? Not in the least. We have RINOs (Republican in name only) and DINOs (Democrat in name only) all over the place. We have lifelong democrats running as republicans and if history is any indication, they will either return to the democrat party soon after the elections or join the RINO herd.
Is vote the candidate vs the party a national message? HELL NO! I see the current President of the United States, former President #44 and just about every other shill out on the campaign trail saying, “Vote Democrat”. They’re not saying vote the candidate, in fact they are saying vote ONLY for their party and voting for anyone from the other party is a threat to democracy.
So I turn back to the Center for Essential Information. Their flyer provided no phone number, but there is a return address of 180 Bangor Mall Blvd, #1042, Bangor ME. 04401, otherwise known as the local Staples store. #1042 is just a forwarding box using Staple’s iPostal1 service. Their website was registered in June 2022 and lists just four states, Pennsylvania, Maine, Kansas and Michigan, all places where democrat candidates are struggling against the backlash of their party’s platform and performance of the past two years.
So for me as a conservative voter in a predominantly conservative area, I am being told it is my civic duty to vote for the candidate NOT the party. Heaven forbid I should allow my hometown to have a low letter score on the Center for Essential Information scorecard.
I suppose the biggest concern I have with a flyer like this is that somewhere, someone might give the propaganda it contains even a little bit of consideration. Like so much of the other lies, misinformation and redirection being spread around the country at the local, state and federal level, it is laughable and sad. Instead of answering real questions with verifiable facts, we get garbage like this.
It’s time to vote.
Bob
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