It’s October, which means my TV is tuned exclusively to playoff baseball. And it’s an even year, which means each commercial break includes at least one campaign spot. And we live in Illinois, which means not only are we out of baseball teams to watch, but also we’re subjected to advertisements regarding the Ohio Senate race.
Those with different media diets encounter promotions elsewhere. My physical mailbox has been much less affected than it was in 2020 or 2024, and yard signs are almost shockingly sparse, but YouTube is infiltrated, and someone has sold my cell number to all manner of candidates, committees and pollsters.
The major political parties spend billions. Decency requires acknowledging that I benefit from that largesse when money funnels to the company cutting my checks, or campaign activity encourages people to consider my viewpoint. But there’s more to campaign cycles than red and blue.
Enter reader JW, who emailed about “political infiltration” of the majority parties – candidates with values incompatible with conventional understanding of liberal and conservative – and how voters might be able to discern those tendencies. He also sought advice on unpacking the origins of modern alternative parties, such as No Labels or the Forward Party.
“It’s the deep end, I know,” he wrote, “but elections make all of us crazy when nothing makes sense. Democracy should include all interests running, otherwise it’s not going to work much longer. … I would like to know inter-party affiliations if possible. I’m fed up with both.”
These problems are related. The main political parties don’t want a third seat at the table. In Illinois especially, rules around things like ballot access are explicitly drawn to favor Democrats and Republicans. So whether you’re hard right or far left, the only legitimate path to election is co-opting existing partisan infrastructure.
Years ago, I’d routinely suggest that the Green Party or Libertarians could make meaningful strides not with a grand showing every four years, but by building a framework through municipal and county elections. Another frequent suggestion was exploring ranked-choice voting in hopes of letting voters select the people they actually want instead of those party officials ordain.
Campaign finance rule revisions have enabled obscurity around who funds which causes, so it’s harder for even educated voters to connect those dots, and campaign websites are understandably slanted.
So how does anyone know anything? Voters can tell a lot by who a candidate attacks. You can always decide which topics are personal priorities and contact campaigns about those specifics, but there’s no such thing as a single-issue elected official.
At the end, it’s more questions than answers. Abstaining only emboldens the powerful, so those who care feel called to keep asking.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
Top Feeds,Politics
via Shaw Media Local https://ift.tt/e8UhAqV
October 21, 2026 at 10:02AM
