Why I Joined The Union - Julia
Why I Joined The Union - Julia
“Vote for the man, not the party.”
“Vote for the man, not the party.” I grew up hearing this bit of political dogma (back in the day when all presidential candidates were men). A lot of us quoted it with almost sanctimonious certainty. As an adult, I learned that this revered saying wasn’t always good advice. Because political parties usually have platforms, and if we vote for a candidate based only on how much we like that person, we might end up voting for some policies that we would never want to have implemented.
Still, I could appreciate the merits of both approaches. In some races, I voted for the candidate, especially in local elections in which I knew and trusted the person. Sometimes I voted for the party, for the positions the party represented. A lot of my fellow voters entertained the same options.
But those were the good old days.
It has been a long time since this former Teenage Republican has identified with the GOP. But a lot of my Republican family members and friends are frustrated because they no longer have an opportunity to choose between the person and the party. Because today’s Republican Party is nothing but the reflection of one man, Donald Trump.
This is no exaggeration. All we need to do is look for the 2020 Republican Platform. We will be looking for a long time, because in 2020, the Republican Party decided not to have a platform. They decided instead to stick with their 2016 Platform, the one in place when their candidate got voted into the Oval Office.
Anything resembling a more current policy had only one source: whatever utterance might proceed from their leader’s mouth, however random, transient, profane, or obscene. Any Republican leaders who dared to defy one of those proclamations were mocked and called names by Trump, and his followers took up the chorus. When the ridicule escalated to threatened or actual violence, Trump did nothing to stand in the way.
No more decisions about voting for the man or the party. The man and the party are now one. And if that party is voted into power up and down the ballot, it will not be long until, not only the party, but the entire nation will be nothing but a reflection of the man. And Donald Trump can say, in the words attributed to a historical king, “L’état, c’est moi.”
This is why I joined The Union.
Post submitted by Julia Cochran
Julia Cochran is a volunteer with The Union, a licensed counselor (LPC) in private practice, and was a teenage Republican. She wrote a newspaper column on mental health topics for ten years and has a background in commercial and academic editing and proofreading. Julia conducted online voter research for the Obama campaign. She has been published in various genres under various pseudonyms.
Note: The views and opinions expressed by volunteer contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Union, a single-issue organization that welcomes all and is dedicated to protecting democracy.
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