Letter to the editor: Voting by party is important

To the editor:

Marianne Hoffman’s July 14 letter says you should vote for the person, not the party. Here’s why she is wrong.

By far the most important vote any legislator or Congressperson casts is for the chamber leader. That single vote has a controlling effect on the agenda and a powerful effect on all laws passed in the next two years. The leader selects committee chairs. The leader controls what comes onto the floor. And recently in the Kansas House and Senate, GOP leaders have been acting almost like dictators.

And as for nonlegislating offices, these days GOP primary elections in Kansas are dominated by MAGA voters, who work to ensure that all GOP candidates toe the party line and support all other party candidates. This is the most disciplined major party in U.S. history. It can turn on a dime at its leader’s whim.

No matter what your candidate says, if you vote GOP at any level, then in effect you are voting against abortion rights and against Medicaid expansion and for gerrymandering and for making it harder for poor people to vote and for censoring teachers and for tax breaks for rich businessmen and for appointing radical-right judges who want to elevate a right-wing President above the law.

This is not your grandparent’s Republican Party. This strange new beast is slouching toward an unknown and unholy Jerusalem.

David Burress,

Lawrence