Reply #11: I'm a Democrat who votes issues not party. [View All]

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

IMO, a political party is only a vehicle to achieve a destination. If a particular candidate votes and/or supports most policies I disagree with, she/he doesn't get my vote.

I'm a Democrat, but I owe the party no fealty. Nor will I settle for the "not as bad" argument of the apologists for bad policy. I will NOT "waste my vote" by voting for the status quo or right wing policies as "the best we can get".

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789.

"Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man." Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 1795.

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." John Quincy Adams