Posted on 10/30/2006 10:34:02 PM PST by goldstategop
Some people get mad at me when I tell them not to vote.
But I believe there is a right time to abstain from casting a ballot – particularly if the only choice is a Democrat or Republican who are indistinguishable on the major issues of the day.
A good example of a race where a protest vote for a third party candidate or a non-vote would be the right thing to do on Election Day is the New Jersey Senate race between incumbent Robert Menendez, the Democrat, and Republican challenger Thomas Kean Jr.
(Column continues below)
Pollsters say the race is too close to call. And I don't really care how it comes out.
Some Republicans will hate me for this. They will point out that control of the U.S. Senate could be at stake in this campaign.
I say, if Republicans need Thomas Kean Jr. to control the Senate, then they really won't have control anyway. Because Kean is a RINO – a Republican in name only, a Republican who is embarrassed about being a Republican, a second-generation country clubber who, if elected, will turn out to be a bigger embarrassment to the GOP than a straight-out loss of the Senate.
No, I would never urge a vote for Menendez. He's part of the corrupt Democratic Party political machine in my birth state. As far as I can tell, there isn't a single issue on which he's right.
But, honestly, Kean is no better. Not at all.
And here's the real trouble with electing a sniveling weasel like Kean. What you get is a back-stabbing RINO who will spend most of his time distancing himself from his Republican colleagues, showing that he is "different," that he is "bi-partisan," a conciliator – and someone with no principles whatsoever other than his own personal empowerment.
We've had Republicans in the Senate like this before. Think Lincoln Chafee.
Even though polls in New Jersey show voters there more concerned about local issues than national issues, Kean is spending most of his time right now running away from President Bush – not on the border, not on profligate spending in Washington, not on the political correctness run amok in the White Hose, but on the war in Iraq, the war against jihadist terrorism, the war that will destroy America and Western civilization if we don't achieve victory. It wasn't Democrat Menendez who called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. It was Kean.
Last week, when he heard that Rush Limbaugh had taken on Michael J. Fox for shamelessly politicizing a disease, Kean issued a statement denouncing the talk-show host. He hadn't actually heard Rush's articulate admonishment of Fox and those using him in this campaign. But what Kean read in "press reports" was enough to get him to attack Limbaugh.
"There's no reason for this in our politics, and I don't subscribe to it," he said.
To what does Tom Kean Jr. subscribe? It's a good question. The answer is not much that's good for New Jersey or good for the nation.
If your idea of a good time is electing a spoiled brat rich kid to the U.S. Senate, then, by all means, vote for Tom Kean. Have a ball.
But if your goal in political involvement is to restore freedom in America, to restore moral sanity to our system of governance, to restore constitutional principles to Washington, to restore a reverence for the sanctity of life, to restore respect for America at home and abroad, then I'm afraid to tell you that you have no choice on Election Day in New Jersey. Better luck next time.
Actually, let me backtrack from that statement. You do have a choice. And casting a protest vote or not voting at all in this virtually uncontested Senate race is a very good choice. It's the only choice for those who want to see real competition in elections, who want to see better alternatives in the future.
Vote no on Kean. And feel good about your choice.
goldstategop wrote: If we want a rich liberal boy in the Senate with no real principles or convictions, vote for Kean. "
I'll take your word for it that's true. So what? For one thing, a guy with no real principles or convictions is someone who can possibly be swayed by the influence and prestige a Republican majority can bring. Secondly, you're too late. Fight these fights in the primaries, then stand by the candidate. Thirdly, this is more important than just one state. Our country faces some really serious issues, and now's not the time to play around. Even if Kean only gives you 5% of what you want, that's better than 0% from the Dems.
Some of the conservative leaders should be able to take young Tom Kean, Jr. out to the woodshed (if he wins) for a bit of discussion. He is a kid who would benefit from some gentle positive persuasion.
~ Blue Jays ~
I (of course!!) agree that retaining control of the Senate is critical, even if that has to be accomplished with the election of warm, useless bodies like Kean and Chafee. We need to control the committees (especially the Judiciary).
In my opinion the ideal conclusion to the election would see a GOP Senate WITHOUT Kean and Chafee. At least that way the decks would be cleared in those two slots for genuine Republicans to have a shot six years from now. (Or sooner in New Jersey if a special election is needed to fill a vacancy caused by Menendez being jailed.)
Stallone, you said...
"Vote Republican if you value your life, and the life of your family and friends.
A vote for Democrats is a vote for Islamofascism.
The only thing that stands between the terrorists and the Free World is a Republican administration.
A sobering thought for the intellectual idiots."
Well, you are 100% right on target. EVERYONE who is talking about staying home or voting for a 3rd Party candidate should read your post about 500 times and let it sink in. Great job in summarizing why Joseph Farah and others of his ilk are just flat out MORONS.
"Do NOT vote for the RINO Tom Kean in New Jersey. He's a backstabbing anti-Bush and anti-Rush Limbaugh Country Club Republican. Tell him to take a hike."
If you agree with Farah, what's with the "barf alert"? This article is not a barf alert. It's correct (except the part about not voting, better to vote for a third party than nothing.) The real barfer is the fact that there are people, who call themselves conservative, who want to see RINOs like Kean and Chafee, and leftists like Joe Lieberman, win, and better yet, vote for them.
Jim, YES...that is the spirit. Voting Straight Republican here as well. We can't afford Democrats, especially not at a time like this.
An American Life (autobiography)
8/7/03 | Ronald Reagan
"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it.
"Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.
"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'
"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.
Jim Robinson wrote: "Our freedom and our lives, our very right to exist depends on it!"
Some people might think that's a bit over the top, but I think you're dead on accurate. The Dems seriously want to destroy this country. No, they don't THINK that's what they are doing, but in fact, it's what they're accomplishing. I'll give just one example...the war. If the Dems gain control and pull us out of Iraq (which they very much want to do), America will no longer have any credibility. Oh, we'll have a mighty fine military, but we'll have proven we don't really have the will to use it. That's a win for the Islamofascists and another nail in American credibility in the world.
"Pure parties are minority parties."
Exactly. It's all about power. Principle? What's that?
"This battle should have been waged far more vigorously in the primary."
Many people here keep saying that, and then get mad at fellow conservatives when they try to support people like John Jacobs (against Chris Cannon), Randy Graf and Stephen Laffey.
Well stated.
Principled people don't urge friends to vote Democraps.
Tamzee,
Terrific Reagan quote....words of wisdom to be certain. Words that need to be READ and RE-READ by some of fellow right wingers here who insist on "ideological purity" in the Party.
Principles without power to influence public policy gets you the hard left in control leading to the United States of Cuba.
Principles with intelligence shows us that conservatives must form a coalition with centrists to put some of our principles into play.
"Voting Straight Republican here as well."
Same here. My representative is a great representative and the governor, while not my favorite man, deserves the reelection he'll get. Nothing is really close where I live, except maybe the Carol Hunstein-Mike Wiggins race for the state supreme court.
"We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old."
- Winston Churchill
Thanks... Reagan was brilliant.
And it's ironic... these "purists" would absolutely despise him were he running for office today and would be quick to call Reagan a RINO based on some of the compromises he felt necessary as Governor and then President.
"There is, however, another class for which I feel not the slightest sympathy. Parliament has given us powers to put down fifth column activities with the strongest hand, and we shall use those powers subject to the supervision and correcting of the House without hesitation until we are satisfied and more than satisfied that this malignancy in our midst has been effectually stamped out."
- Winston Churchill
VOTE REPUBLICAN TO STAMP OUT FIFTH COLUMNISTS IN OUR MIDST AKA DEMOCRATS
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