Rick Santorum, R-PA
Bob Casey Jr. has been leading in the polls in the PA Senate Race for a long time now. At this point he appears to have a nice double-digit lead over Santorum. It will be great to see the poster boy for social intolerance unseated.
I recently read that the US had been left leaning from the 1930'2 up until 1968 or so. Through the 70's we sort of wandered. And then from the 80's until now the country had been leaning or slowly swinging right. The story I read suggested the Republican party is out of new ideas, has exhausted their agenda, and that this election might signify a move back toward the left. That would be nice.
The NY Times, in supporting a relatively unknown candidate in CT over a Republican the paper had endorsed many times before. The gist of the article suggested that it's time for the leadership in Congress to change and the way to bring about that change is to vote the party line - even if you don't know the candidates.
I always vote the party line and was a little surprised that it could be considered low-brow to do so. I suppose there are some people out there who like to say, "I weigh each candidate on their individual merits." To me that's surprising. For anything to change in our government you need a critical mass. Candidates run talking about individual issues, but in a broader sense are committed to support and promote the party platform. Once in Congress our representatives tend to do just that and vote the party line. Especially on issues contentious issues that highlight the big differences in the two platforms. So when you pull the lever you may think you are voting for a person, but for the most part, you aren't. You are voting to support a party.
On that note, I will never, ever vote Republican as long as the GOP plays on ignorant fears related to stereotyping certain groups of people in this country.
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