It was not long ago that issue voters existed. They had a personal list of hot-button issues for themselves, and they used stances of politicians to determine their vote. The scoring was not always clear-cut, but they could generally get a decent feel for a politician based on their positions. Sadly, those voters would have a tough time in this political environment.
2020 has been a tough year for sure. Couple the Corona-virus pandemic with an election year, and it becomes a perfect storm. Waves of failures, tsunamis of blame, flooded by corruption, and burning hatred all around. In such a blood soaked arena, substantive issues can get no air. The actual political issues are no longer in discussion. For the first time ever, the Republican Party has no platform. There is literally no laundry list of issues they want to accomplish. They have no goals, and are rudderless.
In the place of issues, they have decided to execute investigations. By their nature, these prosecutions are backward-facing. There is no view to the future, no aspirations for a better place to live. Nope, they have contented themselves to dwell relentlessly on imagined evils and cheating, even as the investigators commit even greater crimes in the process of uncovering the imagined misdeeds. This is the partisan battle that wages in Washington. The citizens are an afterthought in the salvos of attack, spin, and lies that fill the headlines. Fact check happens too late, the lie already has a heard-start.
What are voters to do? How can the humble citizen decide how to vote in this chaos? Adopt a new strategy, that's what. At this point, using any criteria you actually understand, go vote. It really doesn't matter who you vote for, and I don't say that lightly. The point is to get skin in the game. The battle lines have become so entrenched that they count on light voter turnout. They segment likely voters so narrowly that they build models to predict likely voting outcomes. By participating at unprecedented levels, you will help break their prediction efforts, and you will hold them accountable when void promises are seen as the joke they are, and machinations of procedure are used to thwart legislation that affects your life.
The important thing in this milieu is to give up political party, and focus on the least dangerous and unstable candidate. Instability does not make markets secure, flatten cost of living, or boost wages. There has never been a company that made life better for employees without workplace legislation or tax penalties. Jobs are the only way to survive in a system that bluntly shuns the unemployed. The pandemic only shined a light on cracks, holes, and broken systems. It is time to demand better.