I recently came across a video on Instagram talking about how certain towns across the five boroughs of New York City voted for Bruce Blakeman. The video seemed to frame these towns and the people who voted for him in a rather negative light, essentially suggesting that these were bad places because of how they voted.
And honestly? I think that’s a pretty stupid way of looking at things.
Let’s get something straight. It wasn’t necessarily just Republicans and conservatives who voted for Bruce Blakeman. I’m pretty damn sure there were independents, apolitical voters, people who are fed up with the Democratic Party, and perhaps even people who lean more to the left politically who decided to vote for him.
To assume that everyone who voted for him must be a Republican, a conservative, or somehow a bad person is absurd.
And here’s something else people need to consider: Democrats have had decades of political influence and control in New York. And yet, plenty of people are still unhappy with how things are being run. People have frustrations. People have grievances. People feel like their concerns aren’t being addressed. And eventually, some of them get tired of voting for the same party over and over again.
What do you expect people to do?
Some people might stay home and not vote at all. Others might begrudgingly vote Democrat because they feel they have no better option. Some might vote third party, which is what I did. I voted for Jonathan Makeley. And others might decide to vote Republican, even if they’ve never voted Republican before or wouldn’t normally consider themselves Republicans.
Hell, there might even be people who are further to the left politically who decide to vote Republican simply because they’re so fed up with the Democrats.
And that’s something I think people need to understand. Voting isn’t always about ideological loyalty. Sometimes it’s about frustration. Sometimes it’s about dissatisfaction. Sometimes it’s about sending a message. Sometimes people are simply looking at their options and deciding that the party they’ve traditionally supported hasn’t earned their vote.
You don’t have to agree with someone’s vote. You can criticize Bruce Blakeman. You can criticize the people who voted for him. You can disagree with their reasoning. That’s all perfectly fair.
But reducing entire communities to being bad people because of how they voted is intellectually lazy.
People have different reasons for voting the way they do. And unless you’ve actually spoken to those people, you don’t necessarily know what motivated them.
Maybe they were Republicans. Maybe they were independents. Maybe they were former Democrats. Maybe they were people who normally lean left but decided they’d had enough.
You don’t know.
And frankly, this is one of the problems I have with political discourse these days. Too many people seem to assume that if you don’t vote the way they do, there’s something fundamentally wrong with you.
That’s not how democracy works.
People are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to abandon political parties. People are allowed to vote outside their usual political affiliations. And people are allowed to be dissatisfied with the political establishment.
If Democrats want to keep people’s votes, then perhaps they should give people a reason to keep voting for them instead of assuming those votes are guaranteed.
Because here’s the reality: Nobody is entitled to your vote.
And if Democrats keep giving people reasons to walk away, they shouldn’t be surprised when some of those people eventually do.