Ready to Vote? Help Is on the Way!

Ballots are arriving in California mailboxes this week.

I’m here to help, when it comes to evaluating candidates and ballot measures relevant to San Diego. On Monday, October 10, Words & Deeds will publish a Progressive Voter Guide for the 2022 Elections. 

With some help from education expert Thomas Ultican, 50 contests for elected positions have been profiled, starting with officeholders in Sacramento and ending with local school board contests. I’ve examined all 7 State ballot propositions and the 4 relevant to City of San Diego voters.

Given that the focus in the guide is helping readers to make a better decision, we used a lens of what’s practically possible, rather than what’s perfect. This means there are some decisions to be made in contests that are not clear-cut good vs evil situations. Hold your nose, or skip that contest; the choice is yours.

As I’ve said from the start, you’re welcome to disagree with the analyses presented, and my biggest hope is that people will make the effort to vote. The necessity of casting a ballot is usually framed in terms of specific outcomes; this time I argue that there’s more at stake.

I see a worldwide movement underway to undermine democracy in all its forms in favor of systems based on cultish adoration and/or narrow theological views. Here in the U.S., both are true, as the cult of Trump and the aim of establishing a “Christian” nation seriously overlap.

This leaves us in a situation with candidates like Georgia’s Hershel Walker, a man with no discernable moral compass, being presented as a feasible candidate.

Some people like to use the phrase “not-all-Republicans” to justify their choices. And that might be fine if what we’re talking about was policy differences–but the failure of most of so-called “moderate” candidates to defend democracy makes a vote for one a vote for all.

Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com