To the Editor:
As a life-long independent voter, I have been able and comfortable in choosing the candidates I feel will best represent not just my views but how they will shape the environment I live in. Not being an ideologue, I have much freedom in my choices. I believe in the two-party system for the best results. I, therefore, believe in compromise.
Do I have a bias or point of view? Sure; I’m human, but know there are other’s views to be considered and learned from. Survival training taught me that group decisions are often better than those of any one individual, even an expert! I don’t mean “groupthink,” I mean the synergy of many minds.
I don’t expect to get everything I want in any candidate. The world is in chaos and I’m looking for moral people, which is hard to find today. There are so very few who stand out and who, unfortunately, tend to stand alone. I’m reminded of the army of statues in China from 209 B.C.: the Terracotta Army, prompting me to what political parties look like today: silent of independent thought, following their “emperor” wherever he/she goes.
I feel a bit of a loss. I’m unsure whether there is any morality in our political system, not so much at the local level but at the state and federal levels. Politicians have become totally ideology-driven and surrounded by sycophant supporters. Is there any challenge to viewpoints? To statements made? To the way people who have different views are treated? To a party’s stated platform? Is everyone just getting in line to drink from the same bucket of water? Is there no independent thought?
Voters will determine who and what we get. There is no nirvana, but there is dystopia and we appear to be getting dangerously close to that. I will be searching for candidates with a moral compass — who I would respect and would respect others. Someone who would be welcome at my table. Someone whom I could trust with my grandchildren, male and female. Someone fiscally prudent who would invest in our future, even if the payoff was long-term and beyond the term of office. Someone who understands variation and all the differences that come with that fact of life. Someone who I could be proud of for how they speak and behave.
Quaint? Maybe. What is it that you will be looking for?
Jim Vanderbeck
Pittsboro