With no regrets, VFR reader rejects both major party tickets; so does Ron Maxwell

Gintas writes:

Voting for either McCain or Obama is collaboration with enemies of traditional America. It’s like living in Poland while the Germans and Russians are at each other’s throats. With whom do you deal? Both are death. I’ve given up trying to nuance this one, I’m voting tonight (I have an absentee ballot in case of travel during election week), and I’m going to sleep well knowing I have not bowed the knee to the Beast. And if I don’t sleep well tonight, I’m not telling.

Meanwhile, Ronald Maxwell has an equally strong statement on the matter. In an e-mail to his mailing list he writes:

Palin told Ramos she supports a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.

Another reason, as if we needed yet another, why Conservatives shouldn’t waste their votes on the lame McCain-Palin ticket.

Some Conservatives are giving McCain-Palin a pass even though they know better.

On Nov 5th it will be time to rebuild the Republican party from the grass roots up.

Good riddance to the herd of RINOs headed for extinction on election day. Hope they find good fortune and contentment in other lines of work.

Do not despair. True Conservatives can reclaim the party and concentrate their energies on 2010 and 2012. That’s exactly how Goldwater and Reagan eventually triumphed over the pretenders and panderers of their era.

Lesson to be learned here:

Never, ever support PHONY Conservatives. It will always end badly. It’s bad when they lose and worse when they win.

[end of Maxwell e-mail]

Ok, this is fine as far as it goes. But the issue is not just the health of the conservative movement and the Republican party. The issue is the health of America. If a radical leftist triumvirate of White House, Senate, and House comes to power in 2009, they may change the country in such revolutionary ways that there won’t be much left for a revived conservative movement to conserve. I’m not saying that that’s a definitive argument; as readers know, I’m undecided on this point myself. But to act as though the effect of an Obama presidency on America is not even a consideration, to act as though the only concern is regaining the integrity of conservatism, and not saving America from imminent grave damage, means that one is not looking at the whole picture.

* * *

Just after I saved the above remark, I received a comment from Mark Jaws, now posted in “Congress is the thing,� that seems like a strong argument against the concerns I just expressed here.

—end of initial entry—

LA to Gintas:

Ok, I’ve posted this in its own entry. But who did you vote for, if I may ask?

Gintas replies:

I haven’t yet, that’s later tonight. We usually have a stack of propositions to work through, and judges and fire commissioners, and councilmen, and garbage collectors, so I have to grab the voter guide and go into “full bunker mode� to vote. The wife and kids go running in fear, but it’s not as bad as income tax form day.

For president, Washington offers a full range of types, including Kitchen Sink. Here are my choices:

Barack Obama / Joe Biden Democratic Party Nominees
John McCain / Sarah Palin Republican Party Nominees
Ralph Nader / Matt Gonzalez Independent Candidates
Gloria La Riva / Eugene Puryear Socialism & Liberation Party Nominees
James E. Harris / Alyson Kennedy Socialist Workers Party Nominees
Bob Barr / Wayne A. Root Libertarian Party Nominees
Chuck Baldwin / Darrell L. Castle Constitution Party Nominees
Cynthia McKinney / Rosa Clemente Green Party Nominees

I’m going with Baldwin, unless you suggest maybe the Socialism & Liberation Party? Don’t you think the Green Party perfectly embodies anti-Austerism?

For several spots that are unopposed (water commission and the like), I always write in my friend down the street.

Our governor’s race is really intriguing, because the challenger Dino Rossi barely won last time, but tehn barely lost—we’re talking a couple of hundred votes—after several recounts. The King County office (the main leftist hive in WA) kept finding more Gregoire votes every time. I’ve seen the bumper sticker: “Re-Elect Dino Rossiâ€�.

LA replies:

I just found out that Baldwin is a 9/11 “Truther.� (Discussion on this topic, including Gintas’s response, continues in the entry on Chuck Baldwin.)

October 25

Felicie C. writes:

I am really torn. I need moral guidance. My voting principle has always been that, no matter what, one should vote one’s conscience, and God will take care of the rest. That means one should not pay heed to arguments that say, “By not voting for candidate A, you are helping candidate B.” In general, I don’t adhere to the “we must vote for the lesser of two evils” principle, and this is why I didn’t vote in the last election. But Gintas’s argument makes me pause. Gintas wrote: “Voting for either McCain or Obama is collaboration with enemies of traditional America. It’s like living in Poland while the Germans and Russians are at each other’s throats. With whom do you deal? Both are death.” And I immediately thought: but what if you are a Jew in Poland? Then you should definitely vote for the Russians, because Germans would exterminate you, while you would have a fighting chance under the Russians. Now, let’s apply this analogy to today. How do we know that Obama is not Hitler (metaphorically speaking)?

LA replies:

I continue to wrestle with the same dilemma myself: would Obama’s presidency be of such badness that one must vote for McCain? Though I have posted many arguments that challenge my own inclination not to vote for McCain, there have also been good replies to those arguments, and that my anti-McCain inclination has remained in place. But there is still doubt.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 24, 2008 06:01 PM | Send