Shamelessly stolen from Cowboy Blob:
I will be going to the polls, but not to vote for the POTUS.
Oh, I’ll probably cast my vote for Ron Paul, but I have no illusions about his electability — unless Dr. Paul accepts a Vice-Presidential slot, the man is simply unelectable.
No, I shall be going to the polls to ensure — to the best of my ability — that the State of Texas sends conservatives to Capitol Hill.
One thing that we tend to forget — with the willing aid of the mass media — is that the President of the United States is not a king. Other than Executive Orders — which can be overturned by both Congress and the Supreme Court — the POTUS can not make law.
The President of the United States can only take legislation crafted by Congress and either sign it into a law or veto it.
The die is cast, Gentle Readers: we are not going to get a conservative President for the next four years. It is simply not going to happen.
However, if the only legislation that reaches the desk of the President comes from a conservative Congress, the majority of the damage can be avoided.
That’s my hope, anyway.
Abstain from voting for the President if you must; but please cast your vote for a conservative Capitol Hill.
LawDog
I personally have my Dave Barry For President (Yes, of the United States) bumper sticker already prominently displayed.
Yosemite Sam 08′. With all the random ND’s, He’s bound to whack a terrorist or liberal eventually.
I recall that it’s not always who you vote for so much as who you vote against. So a vote for Ron Paul, Dave Barry, or Yosemite Sam is a vote against whoever’s nominated on either side.
I agree about electing Conservatives to Congress. As long as they’re pro-gun and pro-self-defense and not RINOs.
“I agree about electing Conservatives to Congress. As long as they’re pro-gun and pro-self-defense and not RINOs.”
But I repeat myself.
Never figured Lawdog for a Ron Paul fan. Dr. Paul strikes me as the Republican Kucinich.
If it comes down to John McCain vs. Hillary Voldemort, I’ll be on the horns of a dilemma: After McCain-Fiengold I swore I’d never vote for McCain, and I take my oaths very seriously. On the other tenticle, voting third party is effectively the same as voting for Hillary, which is not something I can do with a clean conscience. I can’t even sit this one out because I believe that if you don’t vote, you don’t get to bitch about the results.
Something to keep in mind;
If we cannot obtain a Conservative President with a Conservative Congress, we must avoid a Democrat President with a Democrat Congress, because the Democrats don’t give a fat damn about checks and balances or for that matter actual Law. If Hillary is elected (or Obama, to a lesser degree) and has a cooperative Congress the next administration will get pretty much what it wants (shudder).
Even if (yuck) McCain is elected, a Democrat Congress won’t fully cooperate with him, because in their minds their candidate “should” have won. McCain will do damage, never doubt it, But he will do LESS damage than either of the likely Democrat candidates.
If I thought that there was a real chance of a Conservative (as opposed to merely Republican) Congress I might actually vote for Hillary …. on the H. L. Mencken theory that one should vote for the candidate likely to be most entertaining in office. Hillary, stuck with a real opposition Congress, would probably be impeached. And convicted. She’s too goddamned fond of cutting corners. But with a Democrat controlled Congress, she would have a real Imperial Presidency. Yikes.
In the meanwhile, I’m staying the heck out of major cities. None of the likely candidates strike me as serious (or, for that matter, non-brain dead) on the subject of Islamic Terrorism.
Okay, Cybrludite, I believe you owe Voldemort an apology!
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but republican congressman are leaving like rats from a foundering ship. Just lost another one today from Missouri (he’s going for the governor’s desk). I figure we’re gonna lose at least 5 seats each in the House and the Senate.
I too vowed to not support McCain after McCain-Feingold (not to mention his positions on borders/immigration/tax cuts) and I fully intend to stay true to that vow even tho it’s essentially a vote for what I believe is a major destructive force in my beloved country. However, it’s high time Republicans learn they cannot count on conservative votes when they take so many liberal positions. (if I’d had my way we’d have tossed GWB out of office and installed Fred Thompson to finish out his term as soon as W tried to pull that Harriet Miers stunt– just maybe we’d be enforcing the immigration laws we already have in place!) I cannot think of a single major issue that is heading in the right direction in this country and I will not continue to vote simply hoping for a slower road to socialist/multiculturalist/gun grabbing hippie hell. The Bushs/McCains/Romneys/Giulianis are part of the problem, not the solution. So, while I find Ron Paul’s 9/11 conspiracy theory position utterly detestable, IF I go to the polls, I’ll be voting for him.
Things are gonna get a whole lot worse before they start getting better.
$.02
I was going to leave a long post, but then read csp schofield and I just have to add this…. Folks, there will be potentially SIX supreme court nominations in the next presidential term. There will be a minimum of two. These nominations will shape the court for the next generation. We know what kind will be nominated by Clinton or Obama. Whatever Rebuplican is elected will have a higher likelihood of nominating originalist judges.
Please don’t let disgust dictate your vote or lack thereof.
The Republicans have fallen into the same trap that doomed the Democrats. They have nothing to vote FOR, only something to vote AGAINST. I don’t think it’s going to work out for them either.
If you want to make a statement, vote for President. If you want to make a difference, vote for Congress/Senate.
My curmudgeonly pessimism tells me that we will get a dem president and congress. My youthful optimism counters that they will immediately introduce a new and improved assault weapons ban, which will cost them control of both houses as it did in ’94.
I can certainly see the wisdom behind your stance LD. Unfortunately, with the ever expanding scope of executive orders, our last several presidents have done a frightening job of ‘legislating from the Oval Office’.
I too will be voting Ron Paul. He’s the only one who talked about real issues in last night’s debate.
The mod and other ‘candidates’ looked at him like he was speaking in some dialect resembling that of the bushmen of the Kalihari. It was a sad, disconcerting spectacle.
Anyone but Hillary.
I think the republic would survive an Obama Presidency. It will slide to the left, but then hopefully correct.
But I will vote in November, and if Hillary is the candidate, I will hold my nose and pull the lever for whoever the Republicans put through.
I do not want to think of what tattered remains of freedom we will be clinging to after another Clinton Presidency.
If McCain is the GOP candidate I will NOT vote for him (unless on the outside chance Thompson is his running mate … McCain is old, maybe he’ll drop dead within the first few months and the Republic will be saved).
But baring that, I will not vote to put McCain in the whitehouse. A Democrat will be better because there is almost no difference between McCain and Hillary (for example) BUT whatever is left of the GOP in the house and senate will fight a Democrat president tooth and nail if nothing else for petty partisan political reasons. A RINO like McCain (and GW before him) will get little resistance from Republicans on the hill just because he has an (R) after his name.
BUT whatever is left of the GOP in the house and senate will fight a Democrat president tooth and nail if nothing else for petty partisan political reasons.
.
And I’m perfectly OK with that. In fact, it’s preferable (to me anyway) that we have a do-nothing Congress.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about the Presidential lever when November comes, but the Senators and Reps I choose to send to or back to D.C. will be Conservatives.
And I’ve got some research ahead as it’s my first election in Texas.
I can’t even sit this one out because I believe that if you don’t vote, you don’t get to bitch about the results.
Sure you can! I do it all the time!
Plus, you get the added benefit of being able to look yourself in the mirror.
This is true. My very realiably conservation congress critter is retiring, so I will have to vote for a good conservative replacement. And Mitch McConnell our nicely conservative Senator is facing some opposition in his race.
So I don’t like any of the candidates – the President is only one person.
This was a timely reminder in a moment which seems a bit bleak. Yes, we should remember the election is not a zero-sum game, and that things are rarely all-or-nothing. I wish you were running for office.
“If we cannot obtain a Conservative President with a Conservative Congress, we must avoid a Democrat President with a Democrat Congress, because the Democrats don’t give a fat damn about checks and balances or for that matter actual Law.”
I’m of the opposite opinion – I refuse to vote for any more slime balls. If we can’t get law-abiding, Constitution-followin’ folks into office, then let’s get the house-cleaning party started. It’ll suck, no one will like it, but it’s better than the alternative: letting America slowly rot from an open head wound…
Voting on principle and letting a bunch of rabid socialists have their way with the country for a few years may be the best thing ever to happen since ’76.
Considering who’s running, Cthulhu is the lesser evil.
Damn, LD, now that you put it that way, I need to rethink my voting priorities. I really hope that the rest of the masses wake up and do the right thing to get a Conservative Congress elected. I could live with Billary or Hussein if that were the case.
BTW, if you look really hard, McCain looks a lot like Jimmy Carter. Do you really want someone who looks like and probably acts like that man?
It seems that many people here are voting from the false premise that we have two competing parties. Sorry to break it to you but we have one official party with two aliases. It’s platform is big government, creeping socialism, taxes, perpetual war, devalued currency, slavery, death, and destruction for all.
There is no better example than the last 16 years. We have had 2 presidents one liberal and one conservative, at least if you believe talk radio. We have had 8 congresses, again both liberal and conservative. And what have we gotten, more of the same crap. All the while our government props up external and internal threats to our freedom, some real and some imagined. The solution is always the same. The government blows up some people somewhere, whether it be in Ruby Ridge or Iraq, and then takes away a little more of our freedom, to protect us from those who “hate” us because our freedom. Then they say don’t worry about it, go back to watching your reality TV. Here let us print you some more Monopoly money and take a couple of ritalin. Bread and Circuses.
Currently there is one Presidential candidate that actually wants to deal with these issues, yes I’m talking about Ron Paul, and unfortunately too many people pass him off as some kind of nut. These same people have been drinking too much RNC or DNC Kool-Aid, and cannot see what is truly on the horizon. Our government through deliberate effort and incompetence has been passing some real scary laws. I’m talk about laws that Hitler and Stalin would love, and with modern technology they can enforce those laws in ways that Hitler and Stalin could only dream about. At the same time our leaders and the Federal Reserve are doing there best to drive the economy in a depression that will make the Great Depression seem like a kegger.
It won’t matter one bit whether you vote for Hillery, Obama, McCain, or Romney, they will all bring the same result, the only difference is the timing. A large percentage of us, and when I say us I mean Americans of all political persuasions, need to pull our collective head out of our ass and start fixing our county. If we fail, then all of us will be going down a very dark and bloody path that will end in the destruction of our country. If you don’t believe me then just look around, our country is being “Balkanized” right in front of our eyes. Our leaders are selling us out to what will eventually be the North American Union. And we are facing a spending problem that most people cannot grasp, read up on David Walker US Comptroller. Our governments entitlement obligations, i.e. social security and medicare, will require a significant tax increase, if you think an income tax rate of 36% is bad just wait until it gets jacked up to 96% or higher.
Well I’ve ranted long enough, I will end this with two quotes that I think are appropriate.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — C. S. LEWIS
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. — JFK
Folks, there will be potentially SIX supreme court nominations in the next presidential term. There will be a minimum of two.
This is the only arguement that has any chance of making me vote for McCain, and even then its slim. If not for the justice nominations, I think it would be better to have an open Democrat in office to take the blame for their policies, rather than have McCain’s follies tied to the GOP brand.
I like Ron Paul on taxes and domestic policy, but I realize he’s not going to win the whole Republican party’s support. I’d have gotten behind Thompson as a fiscal conservative and federalist, but he dropped out. I had started by lumping Romney in with McCaina and Guiliani, but actually I think he’d be a little better than either one; for the moment he trails McCain. I’ll have to hope that changes, or hope the Rs can take back the House somehow.
My vote for Ron Paul isn’t a reluctant one: I’m enthusiastic about finally being able to vote for a candidate. I’ve voted “against the other guy” for the last time.
But, that’s just me. I’ll happily accept every vote for Paul, even if it’s against Huck McRomney.
Oh, and did you notice that Gov. Hairspray endorsed McCain today? His endorsement of Giuliani didn’t play out so well. If McCain is now the choice of both Giuliani and Perry, it tells me that they trust McCain to continue the boondoggle and land grab called the “Trans-Texas Corridor”, aka “NAFTA Superhighway”.
Even though I live in a state that will chose Democrat electors in the general election, I will still go an vote for whoever the Republican candidate is.
Neither Romney nor McCain instill much confidence in me, but either will be at least marginally better than the alternative.
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, “You to the election with the candidates you have, not the candidates you wish you had”.
LD, do you mean you’ve actually got a conservative Republican congressional candidate to vote for? Damn few of the incumbents could qualify anymore. Damn few of them have even voted as conservatively as the Democrat that seems to be permanently installed in my congressional district.
I keep remembering a bit of old Communist revolutionary strategy – first, you’ve got to make things worse to get the people in the mood for a revolution. Whether that works depends on whether the government in power is stupid and arrogant enough to help. The Dems sure are, and over half the Republicans, too. It ought to work for us as well as it once did for the Commies, but damn I’m still hoping it’s not necessary…
I don’t know about Mitt Romney. He certainly acted as a RINO in Massachusetts. His ad blitz for the Michigan primary was all about what government could do “for” us, until he had me wondering if he’d forgotten which party nomination he was running for. It’s likely that McCain and the others are even worse, but the best prospect I can see for the next four years is that after what Hilobama does to us, Democrats and anyone else that whiffs of socialism will become unelectable in 45 states for a generation.
On another “they never learn” note, have you heard about how Chavez is “reforming” agriculture and the food supply in Venezuala. It’s straight out of Stalin’s and Mao’s playbooks – once more implementing the ideas that killed more by starvation than those mass murderers had bullets.
Okay, I always thought you were pretty darned swift but after this post, I’m just gonna have to link you whether you like it or not. You’ve entered my eternal adoration zone.
Well, I am against an underhanded, sneaky female, a black Muslim liar, and the Trans-Texas Highway, which probably makes me a flaming racial radical.
It also renders a vote from me almost impossible.
What a candidate list!
Bah. Humbug.
LawMom
I’m with Zundfolge.
Unless McCain chooses Thompson, or someone as conservative (or, even better, more conservative) I’ll vote for the most conservative third party candidate on the ballot (or write one in).
Sorry Lawdog, but it will not be Ron Paul. As much as his supporters might refer to him as a conservative (and fiscally at least, he certainly is), I’m afraid too many of the GOP leaders would interpret a vote for Paul (due mainly to his stand on Iraq) as a sign they need to more even farther to the left. I fear this is the message far too many of them took away from the 2006 Congressional elections.
I want any non-Republican vote I cast to be a clear message to the GOP to move back to the right! If I’m going to vote for a candidate that has no chance to be elected, I want my message to be clearly understood.
qtimtHere is a vote for you, “Just write in Fred.”
Papa Ray
I’m mixed on that candidate.
He’s for welcoming in illegal aliens.
The reason is because he finds them delicious.
Your only choice for a conservative candidate that still has a chance to win the nomination for the GOP is Huckabee. Yes he is a long shot and still has a long way to go- but the opportunity is there if he is supported in the remaining state primaries/caucuses. Texas is coming up- March 4.
Huckabee is 100% pro-second amendment and was the first governor to get a concealed carry permit which I know is important to the people that read this blog. He has a consistent conservative record. Check out his positions on huckabee.com.
Don’t believe the things you hear in the MSM. They either don’t report or only spin and report negatives. Do your own research. Huckabee’s positives outweigh his negatives- since we all know there is not a perfect candidate.
“The President of the United States can only take legislation crafted by Congress and either sign it into a law or veto it.”
Not so – Bush decided to use ‘Presidential Signing Statements’ in a whole new way. Rather than veto laws passed by Congress, Bush is using his signing statements to effectively nullify them as they relate to the executive branch. These statements, for him, function as directives to executive branch departments and agencies as to how they are to implement the relevant law.
Do some research. It’s really kind of scary.