{"id":4760,"date":"2009-07-29T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/vote-for-the-person-and-the-policy-not-the-party\/"},"modified":"2009-07-29T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T12:00:00","slug":"vote-for-the-person-and-the-policy-not-the-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/07\/vote-for-the-person-and-the-policy-not-the-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote for the person and the policy, not the party"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of several guest columns that were submitted in response to this question: How do you identify yourself politically (liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, independent, something else or none of the above) and what does that mean to you?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Bob Coppedge<\/span><\/p>\n

I consider myself an independent, and that means to support and vote for the person and the policy, not the party. Over the years I have registered as a Democrat and as a Republican, and will register in a party when there is a candidate to support in the primary. No party has a monopoly on wisdom, and to vote the party line is to shortchange the mind all should cultivate. <\/p>\n

Frustrating indeed is the negative atmosphere that surrounds many campaigns. Respect is too often a rare commodity, especially respecting the right of others to have a different opinion, but it\u2019s hard to respect someone who looks down on you for your different opinion. Convince me of the wisdom of your position, but in a respectful way that appeals to my mind, not my emotions. I will then be more inclined to consider your position.<\/p>\n

My vote, money and recommendation go to the candidate who supports policies I support, and does so in a generally positive manner.<\/p>\n

Retired from New Mexico State University, with two of my degrees from NMSU, I was raised in Hobbs and spent 10 years out of state — in Utah, Oregon and Florida. I\u2019ve been back in the state with NMSU for over 30 years, following local, state and federal politics. It\u2019s a great state!<\/p>\n

Coppedge lives in Mesilla Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of several guest columns that were submitted in response to this question: How do you identify yourself politically (liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, independent, something else or none of the above) and what does that mean to you? By Bob Coppedge I consider myself an independent, and that means to support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}