Vote for who you want, but make sure your ad is correct

Vox Pop

I got my weekly shopper today, which I page through every week to see anything of interest. I know that we are in election season, which means every party starts to make its questionable claims, so I was by no means surprised to see the Taylor County Republican Party ad referring to the differences between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in terms so broad as to lose meaning. Although I don’t see Joe Biden as a ‘socialist’ who plans to make all corporations publicly owned, I also realize that I am one of those closet socialists who strongly supports socialist programs like public education and social security benefits. I also always find it ironic to present the GOP healthcare option as protecting ‘individual choice’ - I have better insurance than many, but it is hard to feel honored by my ‘choice’ to accept whatever insurance my employer provides or pay through the roof. And I don’t feel great about my ‘choice’ of dental providers, of which all in network options require driving 45 minutes. I personally would greatly appreciate a single payer system where everyone is in network and I could truly choose whomever I want.

But although these representations are exceedingly simplistic, I understand an ad is not where you can explore complex policies. It is sad though that they also included a blatant lie. Feel free to disagree with or dislike Joe Biden as much as you want. But to place his religion as ????? on your ad? Joe Biden has been a devout Catholic throughout his political career. He attended parochial school as a kid and attends mass weekly. It is clear that these beliefs are important to him and have existed throughout his life and prior to his political career. Donald Trump may be Presbyterian - there is not much evidence of his religiosity prior to his political aspirations, but quite frankly, it isn’t for me to determine his beliefs and I don’t know that it should even matter what they are. Isn’t a good person and good leader enough, whether or not they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim?

Again, it’s up to you who you vote for. And I guess Taylor County Republican Party can say whatever they want with their first amendment freedom to lie. But it would be nice if we were all willing to stop lying about people just because we disagree with them.

— Ben Koch, Medford