I get that; I truly do. Because so do I; and I have not been too thrilled at the prospect of having to pick one of the three* candidates left. So I’ve decided not to pick one of them, after all. You see, Rick Perry’s on the Maryland ballot, so I’m going to vote for him… not as a protest vote, but as a this-will-get-me-to-the-polling-place vote.
I recommend this strategy generally for three reasons:
- It will make people feel better;
- It will allow people to complain and gripe about the primary results without being hypocrites (only practicing Republicans get to complain and gripe about our poor candidates);
- And it will get people out and voting in the primary generally. This will be important in a lot of state and local races, where there are more choices. And ones that can be affected by a smaller number of votes.
I know that it sucks, but adulthood often does.
Moe Lane
PS: My apologies to anybody living in Virginia, where – thanks to the intersection of a court case and a rather provincial state party – the choices are, as they say, limited. I suggest that any frustration be taken out on the aforementioned state party, given that their self-marginalization took real skill to accomplish.
Rahe’s piece (‘More Than a Touch of Malice’) at Richochet is a bullwhip to the brain. Anyone who is pouting about our candidates needs to read this. Woof-dee.
This Virginia is going the protest vote route and not voting for Romney
I had already decided to do this. And for the same candidate.
*shrug*
There’s a Not-Romney on the ballot. Good enough for me.
I actually did the same as Moe is going to do. Perry was in the Missouri “beauty contest” primary. Even thought it doesn’t count towards delegates, I still voted for Perry. I’m still depressed at what’s left in the race for the GOP.
Choices? As David Drake wrote in the RCN series; “Flies, I am sure, can find all manner of subtleties in garbage.”
On the up side, the primary campaign might still be going on by the time I get to vote in it (March 6), which is usually not the case. Yay.
With the exception of Moe and a few others, a lot of the conservative pundits got carried away with being king-maker, or at least trying to influence the primary. Many lined up behind Romney and subsequently tore down the other candidates. This has contributed to the anybody-but-Mitt backlash, a wave that Mr. Santorum is currently riding. In an election where a candidate who talked clearly about conservative ideas (limited government, fiscal sobriety, pro-business) would have won over indies and Reagan Dems by the electoral boatloads, we end up with the father of RomneyCare and a guy who brings the social hot-button issues into the spotlight.
.
I need a drink.
Already there jetty, an election against an idiot who is setting himself up for a defeat is slowly turning into a train wreck for the Republicans. On the plus side though I still think O’bama’s going to lose. We’ll end up with a weak President with no real mandate to do anything. He’ll most likely be a one term wonder, all the more reason for someone who’s going to kick butt and take names.
I don’t need an excuse to go to the polling place. I live well out in the country near a small farming town, smaller than most. I always drive the truck in to vote. Something about driving the truck down Center Street and seeing that flag out in front of the fire hall with the ‘Vote Here’ sign always makes me proud to an American. I don’t need an excuse to be there at all…
Kind of in the same boat as Jeff, I vote at the local school, the one my grandkids attend, although the older one is now in middle school. I go there in my car I see the flag, it makes me feel good. In the end I feel like I’ve accomplished something, even though I don’t know what the end result will be. Faith, when it runs out is when we’re Really going to start having problems.
I just hate it so much that my wife has lost all faith in the system and people who govern us that she no longer wishes to vote. The Republican Party is suffering from a crisis of faith, in the end it always, always fails us. So how can I condemn them, those who sit home and no longer bother to go through the motions and vote? When it NEVER changes a darn thing.
Catseye, there are only two positive thing I can say about the Republican Party:
1- The Democrats are far worse. When your choice is between a party that defines incompetence and corruption, and a party that actively hates this country and has been working to destroy it… well, your choice may suck but it’s still a choice.
2- The Tea Party has proven it can get nonmachine politicians elected to national office in the Republican Party. If there’s going to be any improvement in the way things are done, that’s where it’s going to come from.
Shrug your shoulders, work to get the worst of the Bohners and the Spectors out, keep the pressure on the weak sisters still in office via phone, email, and town halls… and FIDO.
I voted Herman Cain, even if he dropped out of the race almost a month earlier.