Well said. And when Democrats vote for Democrats, they know exactly what they're voting for (though they clearly don't know the consequences). When Republicans vote for Republicans, they hope to be voting for a representative who will advocate for limited government in principle as well as in deed, but they know that what the representative will actually do once in office, is a TOTAL CRAP SHOOT.
Now I know a guy like fatman is going to say: "All voting is a crap shoot!" To which I would answer, "No, it's only a crap shoot for Republicans." Democrats get exactly what they vote for. Republicans like fatman think they can vote FOR liberalism and get something else. No wonder the party is screwed up six ways to Sunday.
I still think there's time for the ballot and soap boxes, on that I agree with fatman, but I also think that the ONLY way we can use those two items to our advantage, is to take the presidential candidate THIRD PARTY in order to weaken the leftist/liberal power structure in the GOP by at least forcing a plurality win on the victorious liberal Uniparty candidate.
“...think they can vote FOR liberalism and get something else. No wonder the party is screwed up six ways to Sunday.”
In every election since Reagan left office, people have relied on the lesser evil excuse to justify their votes. This is a fact.
In every election since Reagan left office, people have bemoaned that the Dem was of the devil and that they HAD to take what they could get in order to save America. This is a fact.
In every election since Reagan left office, people have, through their voting, elected progressively more liberal Republicans, willingly and on purpose who have moved ‘progressively’ to the left. This is a fact.
We can know that the above are actual FACTS because we can A: read the history of the actions and B: pick up a newspaper or turn on the tv/read the internet.
I used to think most people were just in denial. I have come to the conclusion that in reality, they just are too arrogant to admit their mistakes and learn from them.
They are invested in a lifetime of believing that their choices were correct based on the information they had at the time. Thus we hear lots of revisionist history about their candidates to justify their actions.
It takes a lot of courage to admit being well and truly wrong. For myself, someone who first and proudly voted for Reagan in 84 (I was too young for the 80 election), it was not easy for me to admit to myself that my vote for McCain (to get Palin) helped move the party leftward and greatly so. It was a mistake. I will forever eat crow for it. Much as I want Palin in office (as I believe in what she has to say), if I had it to do over I would not pull the lever on McCain.
I wouldn’t do it because I see what happened. Even though he lost, it opened the floodgates for the GOP to adopt every liberal tactic Steve Schmitt and co employed on a party-wide scale. I helped make things worse.
Now we are still a couple out from the next election, assuming we get to one. There is ZERO excuse for people to stick their heads in the sand in light of the last election and the liberalism that has been unleashed in the GOP since.
People that vote to further empower the GOP are every bit as detrimental to what remains of America as a liberal. Cruz, Lee and MAYBE a couple others are “RINO” at this point in the sense that they are not toeing the GOP line. They aren’t ‘Republicans” by the modern definition of the term. Personally I wish they would make it official and disavow their party membership, but that’s besides the point. At heart they aren’t Republicans. TEA yes. So supporting them is a great thing.
As for the rest, we can keep doing what we have been or not.
If we do, we are a bunch of untrustworthy hypocrites since we believe in nothing we claim to. If we don’t and finally stand on principle we might lose. But I doubt it.
But as I said many times and was roundly mocked for it, What do you ‘win’ with a House full of Romney clones? What do you “win” with a guy like him in charge when they all mirror Democrats?
Nothing.