The writer of the Tuesday letter, “Fruitless to vote person over party,” states that she learned, when she was young and impressionable, to vote party over person after a male authority figure suggested it. By doing so, she may have undermined the role of women in politics.
If you don’t sometimes prioritize the candidates’ gender over their platform, then one gender regains long-standing domination in some arenas. The same goes for race and privilege. When a person of color runs for Snohomish County Council, a broad range of supporters and maybe opponents probably do not factor the candidate’s platform.
People in Washington state grew up welcome to vote their heart, unlike other states. Overall, when candidates are only Democrat and Republican, there are not as many platform differences as you’d expect. Some citizens anticipate which platform issues are likely to come up during the term length, decide the effect of the scope of the candidate on those issues, and/or look to see if party representation is balanced enough to make a platform exception for an unusually strong leader of the opposing party. From platforms, you can’t always necessarily extract vision, honesty, dedication, fairness and sensibility. Those qualities come from the candidates themselves.
May we know how many people crossed their party in the Hope/Reardon vote? Another thing, not all parties are able to sponsor candidates in every election, so people who support less popular parties are probably accustomed to voting outside their party. This makes me wonder what the letter writer thinks of independents.
By the way, “Citizen Input” did not say he won’t vote Democrat next year. He might be counting on Democrat Randall Terry, for whatever reason, although Terry’s views on major controversial issues are not usually popular with Democrats. I suspect voting party over person can result in unpleasant surprises sometimes.
Kristin Jagelski
Marysville
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