Letter: Look beyond slogans when voting

There’s an election coming up in November, and we need to think not only about who or what we’re voting for, but also what we’re not voting for. We might be voting for one or another ideology, but we’re not voting for political gridlock.

We might vote for someone whose mantra is deregulation, but we’re not voting for tainted food or polluted air and water.

We might vote against a candidate who wants to raise the minimum wage, but none of us is voting for the destruction of the middle class or for increasing numbers of families descending into poverty.

We might vote for lower taxes, but not for the notion of a class of people who get tax breaks that are denied to the rest of us.

We might vote for a candidate who attacks the Affordable Care Act as social welfare, but would you vote to repeal Social Security or Medicare?

We need to be careful how we let candidates inflame us with slogans. What do candidates mean when they say they’re for freedom? Freedom for whom and to do what? Freedom for Tesoro and Savage to endanger our community with an oil terminal? For employers to pay poverty-level wages?

We need to get past the slogans and consider the details inherent in what candidates are trying to sell us.

Joel Littauer

Vancouver