It is the assumption that with a number of us, our votes were with Mr. McCain to begin with (or were possible to be with him at some time) and that by somehow "witholding" this McCain vote, we deny him something and give the benefit to Obama.
But let me make this clear.
Nothing as far as THIS VOTER is concerned, is being denied or held back from McCain and being awarded to Obama. He never had this vote to begin with.
It will not go to him, it will go to a slate of electors pledged to a Conservative. Neither will it go to Obama, it will go to a slate of electors pledged to a Conservative.
I just wanted to make this clear. We can cause all kinds of blame on people if Obama is elected. It could be blamed on people who voted for McCain in the primaries to set him up, a liberal moderate, as the standard bearer of a fundamentally conservative party.
If Obama wins, it will be because he received votes from enough voters for slates of electors who cast their votes and he won the electoral college. The only people to blame for that in the aftermath will be the Obama voter (and perhaps McCain for running such a poor campaign). There is no blame to go to conservatives.
It is your right to not vote for McCain. However, not voting is in fact a vote: a vote of no confidence or a ‘negative vote,’ if you will. Please don’t be naive in thinking there are no consequences to that choice.
Not voting, or voting third party gives the other guy an advantage. In 1992, lots of principled people voted for Ross Perot instead of George H.W. Bush. Did Bush the First screw up as President, breaking his no new taxes pledge? Damn straight he did. So we ended up with Bill “43%” Clinton as President. Ross Perot had a snowball’s chance in hell, everybody knew that. Yet enough people were upset enough with Bush 1 to take their votes away from him and give it to Perot anyway. Was it their right to vote for Perot? Absolutely. But the consequence was Bill Clinton: Lewinsky, Scandals, Waco, Terrorist attacks that go unanswered leading to 9/11.
If the election is close, as I expect it will be, the difference between McCain winning or losing could be the votes he didn’t receive from people like you. Again, it’s your right, but I expect no complaints about the Obama Presidency from anybody who did not vote.
Now, in an ideal world a candidate has to earn my vote 100% of the time. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world. The fact remains that one of these guys will become President of these United States. One of them most certainly will put us on an accelerated path to socialism, increased taxes, large and intrusive government, weakened national security, and an energy policy by the Brothers Grimm. The other guy is John McCain, who is certain to p*ss us off at times, but has a good record on limiting government, cutting spending and taxes, and will be strong on national security.
As the expression goes, if you’re dealt lemons, you make lemonade. I suppose that would also apply when Obama manages to squeak out a victory. I don’t believe for a second the majority of these PUMAs everybody likes to talk about will go for McCain. When push comes to shove, they will pull the lever for Obama, that’s how the cookie will crumble. When Obama wins, I will need a lot of sugar to make that lemonade palpable...
I just keep wondering where all these principled conservatives were during the primaries, now that you mention it. A lot of blame was placed by them on the primary system and yadda yadda yadda, “things ain’t fair and it’s the media’s fault and these moderates...” But then and now they don’t offer any true alternatives, solutions, or ideas to address the situation. I was with Fred, but Fred wasn’t as with it as we all hoped. Perhaps the fundamentally conservative party you refer to isn’t so fundamental or conservative anymore.
Out of curiosity, who of the initial Republican field would you have preferred? What do you think of Sarah Palin? I honestly can’t get over the fact that you’d rather not vote for McCain then vote against Obama. I’m not looking to persuade you, and I hope I’m not offending you. I just don’t see the logic and rationale in what you’re saying.
JP