How good is the DNC at choosing candidates?

There you go again, John. Trying to turn everything into a partisan attack and undermine Dems for behaving like the political party that they are. You lose your credibility when you do this.

A political party represents a range of political and ideological beliefs, with some variance for geographic or demographic differences but if someone strays far from the range on a bucketload of issues, not only do you have no meaning left to the label, it can actually be deceptive. That's how you get that RINO or DINO dynamic. People may claim to be a Republican or Democrat with virtually nothing remotely in common with the core values and beliefs of the party. The question becomes how far from orthodoxy on how many issues is too far away for 'truth in advertising' purposes. I don't think the dynamic is any different if you are a Dem, a Pub, a Libertarian or a member of the Green Party.

There are benefits to being a member of a party. You get the support system it provides, the cred behind the label, some fund-raising opportunities, the voter and donor lists, some protection from internal primary attack, and access to volunteers . But its not free. It comes with strings attached.

The party has expectations that the loyalty will be returned during some important partisan votes. There will be times you will be pressured to conform and protect your party and its leaders. That's fair. If you want to be totally independent of any party , then don't identify with a political party, and don't accept those benefits.

 

That's true, but there's nothing that says I have to accept either one or vote for either one. There are other options, voting third party against both major party candidates which I did in 2016 or just plain refuse to choose between them, stay home and don't vote. Both options are looking better and better everyday. Especially voting third party so I can officially register my vote as being against both.

 

doing the above guarantees a person will never get what they want

they will get what they get..

does anyone agree with the below??

"if a person does not use the right vote, then that person should lose the right to complain."

after all..most people holding elected office these days are the result of people not voting

until 2020, a 50% voting rate was considered high

in 2020 it was nearly 70%...thanks to trump

and if trump is on the ticket in 2024, it may be higher

and if Taylor Swift continues to tell her fans to vote it may be even higher in 2024

 

Most likely so. But voting for the lesser of two evils, the least worst candidate, the candidate you want to lose the least also won’t get you what you want. It just makes it worst. As those who don’t want neither, vote for one of those they don’t want only to have more and more of disliked and unwanted candidates in the future. If enough voters voted their convictions and conscious, perhaps the two major parties would take notice. Having 10% or 20% voting against their candidates might open their eyes. Although I doubt as they have a monopoly on our election system.


One can only hope. But going along with them only encourages more and more disliked and unwanted candidates by most Americans.