Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion column written by Chris Fordice, senior research technician at Novomer, Inc. It was written in response to a recently published column in The Voice by James Drader, Chair of the Tompkins County Republican Party.
As always, The Voice is willing to reprint alternative or dissenting viewpoints. If you wish to write a response, contact us at jstein@ithacavoice.com.
— Jeff Stein
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Written by Chris Fordice:
When you are only given 2 options, no one comes out on top. We all lose with the never-ending manipulation and self-serving interpretation of election results for the sake of holding to a side. The issue with politics today is the money that is in them and the way government officials are bought and sold to represent everything except their actual constituency and their rights. Overall, there has been no “overwhelming vote of confidence” for Tom Reed or the Republican party. This latest mid-term election is political history repeating itself; nothing more, nothing less.
You either vote to try and get the money out of politics or you don’t. That’s how data gets skewed to make it look like Rob Astorina “did well upstate” in the latest Governor’s race by continuing to ignore how well the Green Party Candidate, Howie Hawkins, actually did. It’s a statement that people are demanding an actual change. It’s not a comment on Astornia or Cuomo but rather one on the continued dissatisfaction with a broken system, not just one portion of it.
I respect everyone’s politics and that you believe in them. But, the continued phrases about how we, as an area or a nation, have sent a message are not genuine. Once again, this mid-term election is history repeating itself. This election somehow represents the overall public opinion of a nation has “changed?” Despite the number of donkeys or elephants in this or that branch of here or there, the public opinion shows a continued trend in being fed up with the big business money that is controlling policy.
There were several progressive victories throughout the nation on individual issues that show these are the ideals American people actually vote on and for, not the newly gerrymandered districts or traditional and listless party options. The message our leaders have been sending is that it is easier to change the rules of democracy and allow big business to run our country. When you draw the longest line possible through a square, you end with two, identical isosceles triangles neither of which provide a suitable foundation.
Chris Fordice
Senior Research Technician at Novomer, Inc.
Resident of Ithaca