One Issue This November

Suffering the malevolence of what is being Left, has become something of a rite in the passing of citizens of what is Right to champions of Reason; idiocy being a bump in the road to real human progress. But, suffering the obstinance of one's own fools on the Right is virtually insufferable given the political disasters their short-sided, myopic, irresponsible, indignation stands to unleash. Does anyone remember, Perot? It only takes 10% stupidity to yield 8 years of deterioration. Now is not the time to test a unified theory, of righteous abandon. Too much is at stake, to risk an error in judgment. And four years is far to long to wait for a fix that may never arrive.

Being an Objectivist, I recognize that the tree of Reason bears more fruits of virtue than the tangled vines of Passion. So I urge my Republican brethren to recognize one simple objective for the upcoming election. There is but one issue for which to vote, regardless of all other misgivings. And this one, does not even require you to hold your nose. Resolve yourselves to this truth...

But, suffering the obstinance of one's own fools on the Right is virtually insufferable given the political disasters their short-sided, myopic, irresponsible, indignation stands to unleash. Does anyone remember, Perot? It only takes 10% stupidity to yield 8 years of deterioration.

Perot got us Contract With America and GWB. While GWB has his faults, I can't think of any way in which he's worse than GHWB or Bob Dole. Remember that GHWB is responsible for the first (and still-existing) restrictions on "assault-style" weapons, and Bob Dole wasn't exactly a Second-Amendment advocate either.

Also, Freepers in Illinois are facing a wonderful governor's race. I'm going to write in the Constitution Party candidate Randy Stufflebeam. Not because he's going to win, but because the Republican Party candidate is so awful I want her to lose (ideally, she'd come in third, though I recognize that's not going to happen).

And Perot delivered us unto the Clinton Era which ultimately gave us 9/11 and the 4th World War.

If the Republican congresscritters had a few ounces of brains in their heads, they would have been able to severely limit the damage Clinton could have done. Given that Clinton had, in 1995 and 1996, largely gone ahead with what Republicans had asked for, the Republicans backing Bob Dole ended up attacking their own programs. Stupid stupid stupid.

The message for 1996 should have been to remind people that 99% of the things Clinton was taking credit for had come from a Republican Congress. Had the Republicans focused on the positive message rather than the negative, they would likely have gained House and Senate seats in 1996. Instead, by putting their efforts behind a feeble candidate because it was "his turn", they lost support from people who saw the GOP as being more interested in doing favors for its own than in looking out for the best interests of the country.

When impeachment came around, the Republican's message should also have been straightforward (but very different from what they actually said): "Look, we'd rather go into the 2000 election with Clinton as a lame duck than with Gore as an incumbent eligible for two more terms. And Clinton's been willing enough to work with us on things like welfare reform, etc. that we wouldn't mind so much having him in office. Unfortunately, if Clinton committed impeachable offenses we have a duty to remove him regardless of how much we'd rather not." How could the Democrats possibly have countered such a message?

I don't disagree with a thing that you said. Yet, while good men and women stand to our defense on the frontier of chaos, you do what it is you think is most important.
Choose wisely!

Neither of "my" Senators faces re-election. I'll vote for my Representative (Republican), though I don't think she'll face much of a challenge. In the governor's race, I'll vote write-in for Constitution Party candidate Randy Stufflebeam rather than the RINO candidate Judy Barr Topinka (in case you're not familiar with Illinois, George Ryan won the governor's race under the "Republican" ticket in 1998 and proceeded to govern to the left of Charles Schumer. He has since been convicted on felony corruption charges. I view JBT as being Ryan II, and wish she could somehow come in third.)

Nonetheless, your point is well taken. I did not mean to imply that it would not be desirable for the Republicans to hold the House and Senate, but rather that one cannot assume that all Republican victories are 100% good and that all Democrat victories are 100% bad. Sometimes the long-term consequences of elections may be the opposite of the short-term ones; it may be necessary to balance long-term and short-term interests in deciding how strongly to back a Republican candidate.

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