“…The truth matters, American democracy is not a reality show,” declared President Joe Biden at the 4/30/22 Washington Correspondents Dinner. It’s time to hold Republican candidates accountable who choose silence over truth and party and power over country and democratic rule. Pam Bloom responds to the current use of children as political pawns in manufactured culture wars and how that has influenced her choice, as an unaffiliated voter, to select a Democratic ballot for the primary.
We can’t keep pretending the Republican Party we know/knew isn’t changing and embracing the current far right push of misinformation, disinformation, and their push to use our children as political pawns instead of working to make our United States a better place for all of us. (Winston Salem Journal article, Salisbury Post, 4/27/22, Other voices: The very real harm of sexual predation)
How do moderate Rowan Republicans embrace these outliers that espouse such radical and false views and who choose empty buzzwords, cultural warfare, and outright lies over acting as responsible elected wannabes? Are current Republican candidates waiting for local Republican voters to speak up for them? Or are they waiting for Unaffiliated voters to save them from breaking their compliant silence? Apparently local moderate Rowan Republican candidates don’t have the courage to put county or country before this new Republican Party. Why vote for any candidate that chooses appealing to a minority base rather than professing the values folks “say” they hold in private settings?
As an unaffiliated voter, there’s not a single Rowan Republican candidate who has earned my vote. I value truth over hypocrisy. I will request a Democratic ballot during the ‘22 primary and vote for those I consider the best candidates that are willing to represent all the people. I will allow the Republicans to sink or swim with their own values and chosen candidates.
You shouldn’t have to run as a Republican to win in Rowan County. And if you choose the Republican Party as a way to win, you shouldn’t feel compelled to embrace the radical right; be a Liz Cheney or an Adam Kinzinger and stand for something!
I will vote for candidates who espouse American small “d” democratic values and aren’t afraid to run as patriotic Americans who verbally profess those truths and put their democratic beliefs into actions that benefit the greater good. Democratic candidates aren’t advocating the authoritarian rule that today’s Republicans are embracing or, perhaps even worse, ignoring the peril their silence endorses.
“…The truth matters, American democracy is not a reality show.” President Joe Biden
Pam Everhardt Bloom