Posted by
Catmman on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:28:27 AM
How many of you are tired of having to vote against someone as opposed to voting for your principles?
For all of us contemplating McCain. Good stuff.
From Mychal Massie: (excerpted from WorldNetDaily)
I am a conservative, but I'm not an ideologue – nor is my vote governed by fear. That is to say, I will not vote for a Republican nominee to whose positions I am vehemently opposed and/or whom I do not trust, just to keep Obama or, more likely, Clinton out of the White House.
Fear is a powerful motivator that can be used to coerce well-intentioned persons, groups or even the entire nation into making incredibly poor decisions – and the Republican National Committee is not above using same. The idea that I must abandon my moral compass and vote for a candidate I could not find more objectionable – in order to shut out a liberal candidate who bears little or no substantive difference to the one I voted for – is offensive to me.
Voting, in my opinion, is one of the most important acts of citizenship an American can perform. The value of that act should not be taken lightly or under duress.
As my grandmother used to say, "No good is no good," to which I add, my voting for one "no good" over another "no good" doesn't make same less "no good." Thus, as I have been forthright in stating from the beginning, I plan to write in the name of my choice, devil be damned, if Democrats win in the meantime. I survived Carter and Clinton. I can endure whomever and whatever they come up with this time, including the certainty of their punitive tax increases.
I am well aware that many will disagree with me for an avalanche of reasons – that said, so be it. The battle lines must be drawn somewhere. I believe the future of our party depends on it. The party cannot continue in the state of decline it now experiences. Where are the substantive differences that set us apart during the Reagan years? How offensive it is to his memory and to the movement he set in place when we hear liberal Republicans and/or Republican charades claim to be in the image of Ronald Reagan.
And this from the
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:
My principles are mine, they’ve remained unchanged through Hell and high water, and I’m not about to abandon them for they are what I am. Without them, I am nothing. They are not for sale to the highest bidder, much less are they to be discarded in the face of adversity. They are mine, and nobody can take them away from me. I can only lose them by throwing them away myself, and were I to do so, I would be worth less than the basest cur on the planet.
I stated pretty much the same thing last week
here.
I restate my first sentence again: how many of you are tired of being told
we need to vote against someone as opposed
to voting for your principles?
This is the mistake some on the right are making. Conservatives are governed by their principles and will stay home to make a point. Conservatives research the issues, we research the candidates, we look to the future and the long term consequences of our votes, etc. We, unlike liberals, are not governed simply by a hatred of someone as the left hates Bush for example. Now this may seem contradictory since we're "hating" McCain, but it is not just a unreasonable "dislike". McCain has trouble with the conservative base precisely because of how he has treated the base and conservative principles. That behavior has been explained numerous times and doesn't need to be reiterated here. If you are a conservative, you know what I'm talking about.
Conservatives are tired of having our fear played upon. Mr. Massie states in his post that he survived Carter as well as Clinton. This is a fundamental point. We will survive another leftist as well, though it will be extremely unpleasant. But we are a principled lot and aren't unwilling to walk through the fire
IF we can save our Party and it's fundamental principles.
For a majority of conservatives, McCain is going to have to walk through fire to get our votes - he has shown us time and again he is unwilling to do that for us.
THIS is why we feel the way we do.
(
H/T: AIR)