Posted on 11/06/2006 12:30:43 PM PST by neverdem
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"But if I were in RI, I would still vote for him, if only to poke a sharp stick into the eye of the Democrat Party."
I do live in Rhode Island and I am going to vote today, but believe me, having to vote for Chafee is going to leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth. "Doing a little evil for a greater good" is the best way to describe the voting situation here in RI.
MM
I'm sorry. I sympathise. I really do. I am about to go out and punch the button for Tom Kean Jr. It sucks, but what are you gonna do?
Now go vote!
LOL Not voting was never a choice for me, Im just going to have to hold my nose pretty tight when I cast my vote.
The issue will go to the states where there will be intense debate. There hasn't been a public debate over abortion in 33 years. Armed with new ultrasound images and photos of aborted babies, there's no doubt in my mind that severe restrictions will be approved by the voters. The annual slaughter of 1.3 million babies will be drastically reduced.
What else could I do?
*DC Chapter Short List ping.
DO the RIGHT thing VOTE !!!
[Mrs T]
Make up your mind. Either I do the right thing OR I vote. I can't do both. Now if you say, "Do the less destructive thing and vote", I can say I did that.
Me too. Had too.
So glad you're back in time to cast your important vote!
Hope your mom is doing better.
AB
Thanks! She's doing much better now.
Don't vote = Don't Bitch
"Republican president, Democratic congress looks pretty appealing." 'No, it does not.' ~ Bahbah
Never did. Never will.
Why Party Trumps Person. bttt [excerpted]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1733872/posts?page=123#123
A time-honored cliche heard every election year goes something like this: "I'm an independent thinker; I vote the person, not the party." This pronouncement is supposed to demonstrate open-mindedness and political sophistication on the part of the pronouncer. It's your vote, cast it any way you like - or not at all.
But idealism and naivete about the way our electoral process and system of government works shouldn't be mistaken for wisdom or savvy.
For better or worse, we have a two-party system. And party trumps person. Either a Republican or a Democrat is going to be elected... No one else has a chance.
..not the Libertarian candidate, nor the Communist, nor the Green. Minor party candidates are sometimes spoilers .. but they don't win.. elections. Ross Perot got 20 million popular votes in 1992, and exactly zero Electoral College votes.
In Europe's multiparty, parliamentary democracies, governing coalitions are formed after an election.
In our constitutional republic, the coalitions are formed first.
The Republican coalition includes, for the most part, middle- and upper-income taxpayers (but not leftist Hollywood millionaires and George Soros), individualists who prefer limited government, pro-market and pro-business forces, believers in American exceptionalism and a strong national defense, social-issues conservatives and supporters of traditional American values.
The Democratic coalition is an alliance of collectivists, labor unions (especially the teachers' unions), government workers, academics, plaintiffs-lawyers, lower- and middle-income net tax-receivers, most minorities, feminists, gays, enviros, and activists for various anti-capitalist, anti-business, anti-military, anti-gun, one-world causes.
...party trumps person because [regardless of the individual who wins an election] the coalition will be served.
.. After the individual members of a new Congress have been seated, a figurative nose count is taken and the party with the most noses wins. That victory carries with it control of all committee and subcommittee chairmanships, the locus of legislative power.
Now, let's say you're a registered Republican voter who clearly prefers the Republican philosophy of governance. And you're a good-natured, well-intentioned person who happens to like an individual Democrat, a Senate candidate, who's somewhat conservative. You decide to cross party lines and vote for him.
As it turns out, he wins, beating a Republican and giving the Democrats a one-vote majority, 51-49, in the U.S. Senate.
Congratulations! You just got Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein and Hillary Clinton as key committee chairs, and a guarantee that your Republican legislative agenda will be stymied.
That's the way the process works.
Does this mean that in a two-party system like ours it comes down to choosing between the lesser of two evils?
You bet it does.
That's not to say that either party is really "evil," that's just an expression.
If we had [300] million custom-tailored minor parties, everyone could find his perfect match.
But that's not practical.
You can be a purist and cast your vote symbolically with a boutique party, or be a player and settle for the least imperfect of the Republican or Democrat alternatives.
Your vote, your choice. ~ Mike Rosen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728426/posts
OK the Dc Chapter can pick out one or two issues to go after congress during the next term. Any more than that becomes a distraction. Which two are your pets?
My email to Derbyshire:
Grow up.
The 2006 Choice - By Cal Thomas
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/the_2006_choice.html
Conservatives who are upset that Republicans haven't done enough during their 12 years in control of the House and Senate and nearly six years in control of the White House need a slap in the face.
Republicans may have controlled all three branches of government, but conservatives haven't.
If conservatives believe enough has not been done to advance their agenda, let them work to elect more conservatives, not hand control of Congress over to a party controlled by far-left liberals who have no intention of moderating their tone or watering down their beliefs after the election.
One issue should trump all others for conservatives: judges.
As Manuel Miranda of Third Branch writes in Human Events, "If the GOP loses the Senate, precedent shows that more than 60 Bush judicial nominees will never get a Judiciary Committee hearing under the chairmanship of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Republicans will be unable to stop a filibuster of a next Supreme Court nominee and countless circuit court picks. This will dwarf Democrats' past six years of obstruction."
Liberals have used the courts for decades to bypass the public will and impose a secular agenda on the country.
If they win control of the Senate, their current leadership will be emboldened to continue that practice.
Any judge who manages to make it onto the bench will most likely be of the judicial philosophy of Anthony Kennedy and David Souter. Republican presidents named both men because they thought it would be easier to win the approval of Senate Democrats. Neither turned out to be conservative, despite the White House sales job to conservative groups.
Then there is the war.
We live in a time when most people do not remember what a real war looks like.
Some are horrified that nearly 3,000 Americans have died in the Iraq War, but ignore that in World War II more than 407,000 Americans died. Sixty-two million were killed on all sides.
Some say this war is taking longer than that war.
That's because this war is different from that war in that it has no home state, unless we abandon Iraq. And the enemy accepts no rules for fighting it.
Democrats speak only of withdrawing American troops and of how our presence inflames the enemy, yet they have no explanation for what inflamed them before the war.
President Bush may have to change tactics, as he has said he is willing to do, but he understands the challenge. This isn't Vietnam.
This is a religious-philosophical war for control of the planet.
Anyone who thinks any objective other than the complete defeat and humiliation of these Islamofascists will deter them from their goal of world domination is self-delusional.
Last week over lunch, I asked Vice President Dick Cheney about conservative angst. He said in previous campaigns, "I would have given a lot to get an economy this good to be able to run on." Noting the recession that occurred right after he and the president took office in 2001, Cheney told me, "We (also) had 9/11. . We had Katrina, a war.
We had to spend a lot of money on the war and homeland security. And so a series of repeated shocks... to the economy and here we are, we've got 4.6 unemployment. We added 6.6 million new jobs in the last three years. Productivity is running at an all-time high. More Americans (are) working than ever before. Inflation is under control. . The stock market has hit all-time records.
What do you want? How much better do we have to make it before people say, 'yes, that's pretty good'?" It's a good question.
Is there anyone who believes government doesn't have enough of our money? Then vote for Democrats.
Is there anyone who thinks withdrawing from Iraq before the country can stand on its own against terrorism means there won't be more terrorism? Then vote for Democrats.
Do you prefer liberal judges reading their prejudices into the Constitution and increasingly depriving us of our right to decide our own future? Then vote for Democrats.
If not, conservatives should vote Republican and then work to continue advancing conservative goals. Those goals are more likely to be reached under Republicans than under Democrats.
That's the choice this year, a choice that will be made whether one votes, or cuts and runs out of a false notion that Republicans need to be punished for not doing more.
As the vice president said, "What do you want?"
Cal@CalThomas.com
Then we can talk about all the other federal programs that are bankrupting the country ... and illegal immigration ... and unconstitutional campaign finance reform ... and and ...
I did the right thing . I voted!!
Glad you are back.
[Mrs T]
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