2024 U.S. Elections, It's Crucial To Vote Down The Ballot

This upcoming United States election cycle (2024) is motherf–king intense!

The travesty known as the first U.S. presidential debate, which CNN hosted, empowered GOP challenger and former U.S. President Donald J. Trump while the Democratic voting base questioned the viability of incumbent Joe R. Biden.

After the awful debate, The Heritage Foundation celebrated TOO early and talked about “Project 2025” while threatening to exact bloodshed against anybody who resists. The one blessing is that we were talking about it until something happened at a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania where the focus was back on him and not “Project 2025.”

MSNBC’s Joy Reid is the only reporter who’s making sure we do not forget “Project 2025.”

Voters are thinking about not voting let alone voting for Biden.

I understand the reason(s) that someone doesn’t want to vote for Biden and adamantly wishes for a viable third-party candidate. I supported the candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in 2016 and 2020. Many people I know were frustrated that Sanders lost in 2016 to Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Joe Biden (D-Delaware) in 2020.

I interviewed a member of the Taino Tribe at a local annual Pow-Pow in early February who wished for a viable third-party candidate. In election cycles, particularly when we elect the next U.S. President, the Democratic Party is branded as the “lesser of the two evils.”

The Taino Tribe member, Nebli, said that choosing the “lesser of the two evils” is no longer viable.

If they don’t like Trump but don’t want to vote for Biden, voters choose to stay home on Election Day or not register for “ballot-by-mail.” It makes it worse because all candidates down the rest of the ballot receive ZERO votes. The rest of the candidates are punished because the top-of-the-ticket candidates have “ZERO” viability.

I participated in a voter phone bank a few weeks ago that was coordinated by Equal Ground, the League of Women Voters, and Alpha Kappa Alpha. The purpose of the phone bank was to inform voters who opted for “mail ballots” of Florida Senate Bill 90 which requires voters in Florida to re-apply each year. We were given a script to say and a packet of names of registered voters who chose to vote by mail.

The representative from Equal Ground led the phone bank. We answered questions such as voters needing to decide who to vote for, choosing not to vote, etc. If they were unsure who to vote for, we could only tell them to research the candidates. If they didn’t want to vote, we were instructed to tell them there was the rest of the ballot to vote for.

The representative said that choosing not to vote because of what happened during the first debate is an insult to the candidates down the ballot. When it comes to “Project 2025,” if Trump manages to get reelected this November, it can be thwarted by electing people into the lower offices.

The U.S. President is neither a dictator nor a monarch (as long there are people in other elected positions to keep it from happening).

On domestic issues, state governors can choose to not agree with what the President does. As long as it’s not yet federal law, the governors have the power to either adopt the mandate or not until it goes to the U.S. Supreme Court (which could rule in the President’s favor or not). It’s crucial to vote for your state governor if you don’t care about either Presidential candidate.

If a sitting U.S. Senate is forced to vacate their seat, the governor can appoint a replacement until the next election cycle (if the seat is up for grabs).

If a U.S. Representative is forced to vacate their seat, a special election is required. Even if you’re voting for a “seat warmer,” they can do a lot in the time they have from being seated until they vacate their seat for the newly elected U.S. Representative.

We have to vote for U.S. Senators because they’re crucial in bills going to the U.S. President (to sign into law or veto) and appointments. The U.S. President needs people in their administration to carry out their agenda.

Over 1,000 appointments in the U.S. Presidential administration require U.S. Senate confirmation.

Examples of these appointments include

• Supreme Court Justices
• Secretary of Defense
• Secretary of Education
• Secretary of the Navy, Air Force, and Army
• Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration
• Director of the Consumer Protection Bureau
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission
• Secretary of the Interior
• Secretary of State
• Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Ambassadors
• Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Comptroller General of the United States
• U.S. Attorney General

These are some of the positions that require U.S. Senate approval. That means voting for your next U.S. Senator if you don’t want to vote for the next U.S. President. By extension, vote for your next governor because of their power to appoint temporary replacements. The Senate Majority Leader can exercise the power to hold off a confirmation vote which Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) did to then-U.S. President Barack Obama (D-Illinois).

The U.S. President can carry out their agenda because of the laws in place. The laws that get passed affect Presidential executive orders.

The people appointed to these positions have powers over their posts. If the U.S. President is believed to have stepped out of line, the Justice Department can appoint a special counsel.

One of my history professors broke it down to layman speak. The Legislative Branch (the two houses of the U.S. Congress) introduces the bill, the Executive Branch (the U.S. Presidency) signs the bills into law (or not), and the Judicial Branch (the U.S. Supreme Court) interprets how the law is applied.

My professor did say that it’s tyranny if any one party controls at least two of the three governmental branches, though that only applies to the GOP since Trump was elected in 2016.

My 12th-grade social studies teacher taught us that voters generally voted for one party to control the White House and another party to control the Congress to maintain “balance,” but that went to s–t when George W. Bush got elected U.S. President in 2000 and reelected in 2004.

One of my history professors broke it down to layman speak. The Legislative Branch (the two houses of the U.S. Congress) introduces the bill, the Executive Branch (the U.S. Presidency) signs the bills into law (or not), and the Judicial Branch (the U.S. Supreme Court) interprets how the law is applied.

My professor did say that it’s tyranny if any one party controls at least two of the three governmental branches, though that only applies to the GOP since Trump was elected in 2016.

My 12th-grade social studies teacher taught us that voters generally voted for one party to control the White House and another party to control the Congress to maintain “balance,” but that went to s–t when George W. Bush got elected U.S. President in 2000 and reelected in 2004.

It’s crucial to vote for our governors, representatives, and senators. If you won’t vote for the presidential candidates, vote for whoever fills those posts.

And this is the federal elections, there are state and local elections that you need to vote in.

While the U.S. Electoral College is the system that decides the next U.S. President, the popular vote is used to elect the next state governor. We also have state senators and representatives to vote on. There are also county and local elections (city, town, township, villages, and municipalities) to vote on.

Not all positions in legal and law enforcement are done by appointment, some positions are voted on.

You may need to vote for your judges and law enforcement officials (police commissioner, police chief, or county sheriff). Aaron Persky got fired from his judgeship after a recall election spurned by the outrageously light sentence given to Brock Turner who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman.

In a nutshell, you need to vote for people who will issue recall elections against elected officials who make f–ked up decisions such as granting Brock Turner a lenient sentence of six months in jail.

There are MORE election posts to vote on.

If you want to keep a despot from pushing a bogus education agenda, you need school board members who push back. Take a look at the GOP’s plans to whitewash education to erase the bloodshed & violence by white supremacists and to indoctrinate everyone (including BIPOC children) into accepting white supremacy.

That is done through education.

South Korean President Park Chung-Hee, the country’s second dictator (and first military dictator), used Taekwondo training (which was introduced into school curriculums) to indoctrinate the masses.

History teachers in Florida are mandated to teach students that Black people benefitted from slavery.

Some red states now require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public classrooms. The number of states will increase.

You can’t look solely at the top ticket on the ballot.

If you think you’re unaffected if you’re overseas, you’re WRONG!!! The United States has the largest global presence on the political (embassies) and military levels (military installations).

Embassies and consulates are placed to encourage trade between countries. Embassies are headed by ambassadors who are the direct links between leaders.

Militarily, the U.S. has stations across the globe. If the U.S. President wants to take over the world by force, they can launch offensive attacks from their foreign installations. Military intervention requires U.S. Congressional approval and United Nations approval. Want to declare war? The U.S. President requires permission from the U.S. Congress who is allowed to “declare war.”

Wars are expensive and they f–k the economy.

When you think about what’s going on in the country and the country’s policies, the U.S. President is bound by the law. Trump and his MAGA faction are a global threat because they want to drown the world in white supremacy. To keep that from happening, vote down the ballot if not for the next U.S. President.

When you cast your ballot, you’re not only voting for candidates. Ballots have amendments to state laws, too. When you cast your vote, you also vote for how the current laws affect you.