I know some local Republicans who are running for office, and they’re running for things like Clerk of Courts and Register of Wills and boring jobs that really have no political agenda or political power. So in some ways, you can say “What’s the big deal if I vote for this person?”

But you need to ask yourself how you could vote for someone who supports a party that stands for the following:

• Discrimination against gays and lesbians
• Eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency
• Open carrying of firearms and reduction of any gun control laws
• Lowering the minimum wage
• Opposition to equal pay for women
• Tax breaks for billionaires
• Reproductive decisions made by government and employers
• Deporting of refugee children
• Denying of climate change and science
• Creationism taught in school
• Health care only for those who can afford it
• Elimination of unions
• Banning of books that they disagree with politically
• Support for treasonous Presidents and denial of democracy

If I vote for a Republican Dog Catcher, am I thus supporting someone who believes in discrimination? That thinks my wife is a lesser person who can’t make her own decisions? Who supported overturning an election?

More importantly, why should I help that party at all? Every lower office run by a Republican helps the party raise money for the bigger offices, and legitimizes their positions.

So if and until the Republicans go back to the days when there were reasonable conservatives, don’t give them more power.

And it’s important to vote in every election. The GOP has spent its time filling our school boards with radicals who want to censor what your kids can learn, defund public schools to help private schools, and give us an educational crisis we haven’t seen in years, where dedicated teachers are leaving all over the country because of these extremists. Don’t just pay attention to election day every four years! Every election counts!

Be sure to vote, and only vote for Democrats. It’s the only way we’re going to stop them.