No, this isn’t about Sen. John Fetterman; he’s just a good role model. This isn’t about Democrat versus Republican. This is about widespread dissatisfaction with government. This is about we voters.
Dissatisfaction is rooted in our parties. Parties have two goals: First, keeping people in office. Second, making things the way party leaders want them: top down, and one size fits all. Leaders coerce those we elect — twist their arms, threaten them, fund or defund, them. Leaders do everything they can to get the votes, laws, contracts and policies in place that they, the leaders, want. What the parties don’t do is encourage, help, support, recognize or honor the job of our representatives to represent us.
In a small country that could be OK. But our widely diverse country, with its widely different states and communities, is not well served by our present political parties’ authoritarianism. We should demand federal tolerance equal to our demand for civil/cultural tolerance.
I encourage you, assess and vote for candidates not based on their party affiliation, but because their thinking, beliefs, wisdom, tolerance for other ideas and willingness to compromise appeals to your sense of fairness, tolerance and justice for all. This is especially true in primary elections. The funding that parties give to candidates is not for your benefit; it is for the party leaders’ benefit.
Government will get better when the people elected represent us. You’ll get no representation if we elect people who simply vote as the party dictates.
Jim Baker
Greensburg