I was active duty from 1976 through 1998, so I wasn’t doing anything for any candidate.
After I retired, I canvased for Fob in his 1998 loss. First time out of the gate I backed the loser, but hell’s bells, he wasn’t a democrat! And Siegelman was a crook.
Since I left the military I’ve been helping out every campaign season for a variety of Republicans, all voluntary.
The Roy Moore thing was also a big mistake, but I do believe the media broke him. He would have been a quirky senator, but never a socialist. Big Luther was crookedly appointed, so Mo Brooks was the only logical choice, but he lost. Jones will not be reelected. I’m hoping Mo runs.
I’ve come to see some of the unconditional support I’ve been giving Republicans was a mistake. With the democratic party vanquished here, I am now RINO hunting!
1998 ? Yeah, they were out to get ole Fob. He was weakened badly in the primaries. Winton Blount the 3rd was the Establishment choice. Blount would have lost to crook Don Single-term, anyhow. Single-term was the last gasp of the Democrat party. I knew he wouldn’t win reelection in 2002. The Republicans from now on would have to be utterly crooked or vile (or badly damaged) in order to lose to any Democrat now.
I blame the Senate fiasco squarely on ex-Gov. Bentley. Any Republican with a pulse could’ve held the seat as an appointee, so long as they weren’t tainted. Instead, he chooses to reward Big Luther for pushing the corruption investigation down the road. That alone was enough to risk him losing to a Democrat in the special. I endorsed (couldn’t vote, since I’m in TN) Chief Justice Moore. Frankly, though, the man should be on the U.S. Supreme Court. I think he is one of our nation’s greatest jurists, standing up to fascism. I knew he would have some trouble getting to the Senate, but I had no idea the disgusting lengths to which the media, both parties and other dark forces would go to utterly destroy his character. Notice how all the sleazy sex allegations and the “bimbos” behind them vanished into the ether once the election was over ?
In hindsight, your vote for Mo Brooks was probably the most wise. However, I do believe the same dark forces would’ve made up lies against him and painted him with the stereotypical “Southern, racist nutter” brush to destroy his candidacy.
As for Jones, who is quite obviously toast, and not even bothering to try to moderate himself, I’m thinking that a new candidate entirely might be a better bet. If Twinkle Cavanaugh prevails for Lt Governor, I think she should be the 2020 nominee against Jones. We need more Conservative GOP women in office. She’ll have nothing to lose by running, plus if she comes up short, she can run to succeed Gov. Ivey in 2022. Mo Brooks will have to give up his safe House seat, and he’ll face those same vile attacks as I mentioned above.
You’re quite right about blind support of any Republican for office. That is often a big mistake, especially when they’re especially vile/rotten/corrupt. I stopped doing that 20 years ago. We had a bum RINO who was elected Governor here in TN, Don Sundquist, in 1994. He was an establishment hack and did little to nothing to dislodge the crooked Democrat machine ensconced in power for eons here. On the Democrat side, a semi-Trumpian (before Trump) populist named John Jay Hooker managed to win the nomination for Governor. Back in the 1960s/70s, Hooker had been the darling of the party left trying to dislodge the centrist Dem establishment of that time. When he won the nomination in 1970, he became the first Democrat nominee since 1920 to lose to the Republicans (also going down with him was the execrable Sen. Albert Gore, Sr.). In the years following, Hooker became a perennial candidate/gadfly. By the 1990s, he was a strong constitutionalist, albeit populist.
In any event, when Hooker won the nomination in 1998, he could be viewed as being to RINO Sundquist’s right. I endorsed Hooker and voted for him (the only Democrat I’ve voted for for Governor since I could vote to date). You never saw such a scramble from the corrupt Democrat party to climb into bed with Gov. Sundquist. The media ignored Hooker, the Democrats did the same. Hooker was the only honest figure running for Governor, and they hated him for it. I knew if he was elected, he’d have taken a flamethrower to the corrupt bipartisan cabal (much like Trump 20 years later). He was too much a threat and had to be stopped, and he was. Sundquist, of course, went on to an odious and disastrous second term. He was then more than happy to foist his 1994 Democrat opponent, Pharoah Phil Bredesen, onto the state after his tenure (Bredesen flagrantly violating campaign financing laws, using his massively deep pockets to buy the job despite the GOP lean of the state — Sundquist ran a rich puppet candidate in the GOP primary who all but bankrupted the winner, Van Hilleary — who had no money for the fall election, yet still almost beat Bredesen).
Yup, each state has their sleazy politics, but the corruption and collusion between the Democrats and the Establishment RINOs are the worst, hands-down. Between the two of them, they’ve helped destroy this country and a multitude of states. When in doubt, it’s almost always the best to pick an OUTSIDER candidate to run (then, of course, we’ve got some insiders pretending to be outsiders — they always find a new trick to lie to people). As someone said, barring some extraordinary figure, it’s best to treat politicians like babies with full diapers, change as often as possible.
P.S. I didn’t say it earlier, but thank you for your 22 years of service in the military.