Did You Vote For a Party or a Person?

This afternoon our US Senator from Nebraska, Deb Fischer, was in the news.  She is a deciding vote on the confirmation of Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.  At first it looked like Fischer was really thinking about the candidate's qualifications and seriously considering voting no.  If you look at DeVos' qualifications, you will find that she has none.  She is a billionaire friend of Trump's who has never seen the inside of a public school and certainly doesn't understand the problems that public school teachers and administrators deal with every day.  On the news this evening it appeared that Fischer had already caved to the Republican party line and will vote in favor of confirming DeVos even though it makes no sense at all.

This raises an interesting question.  When deciding on a candidate for public office, does the public vote for a particular candidate based on his/her qualifications regardless of party affiliation and, if so, what recourse does the public have when the candidate is elected and then just follows what his/her political party dictates?  When Deb Fischer was elected, did Nebraskans elect Deb Fischer or did we just pledge allegiance to the Republican Party?  So far she seems to be drinking the Republican Kool Aid and following the party's direction rather than making any decisions on her own.  From here in Nebraska it looks like she is doing well within the party, but we are wondering when or if she is going to start representing Nebraskans.

This question isn't just for Republicans, either.  If you listen to Hillary Clinton's campaign speeches, there was almost always a reference to what the Democrats would do for the country is she was elected.  Personally I think Hillary Clinton is extremely intelligent and is capable of being a good president, but she is first and foremost a Democratic Party operative.  If elected, she would have done exactly what the party leaders told her to do, even if she knew it wasn't the best choice for the country.

And that raises yet another question.  Are we getting fed up with our partisan political system and are we ready for a change?  What would that change look like?  The only clear path to this type of change is through the voting process and even that isn't guaranteed to work.  Just look at the recent presidential election.  Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but Donald Trump is our president.  Is that what we really wanted?  I'll leave that question for another post.