Sunday, April 03, 2005
I was eavesdropping on a conversation between two girls in my Russian History & Politics class a few weeks ago and heard one of them complain that she had lost her copy of "Anne of Green Gables" and she lamented: "And that book is like my Bible." She sort of turned towards me as she said it, so I, being the friendly and outgoing person that I sometimes try to be, asked her (in jest): "Which passage was your life passage?" She said it would have to be something about Anne's imagination. I agreed that this was a good one but I said: "I think mine is: 'With Matthew, voting Conservative was part of his religion.'" She knows me so it passed with only a heavy sigh and an, "Oh dear," but I suddenly realized I wasn't joking.
This is not going to be one of those wishy-washy posts that says, "I have come to realize that God is not a conservative Republican, and I was wrong, bla, bla, bla." I'm actually thinking of making bumper stickers that say: "God is not a Republican...He just likes us better." But anyway, what I really want to react against is the all-too-common notion that voting for someone based on their party affiliation is somehow inferior to some other reason. I don't particularly think it is...except for Democrats, of course. Just kidding, just kidding. Lighten up. Supporting Party candidates because they belong to your Party is probably an even better reason that supposedly "researching" the issues in each and every election. Why? Because registering with your Party gives at least some kind of indication that you have researched the issues and come down on one side or another. Thereafter, when you vote the Party line, you are in essence voting for your position on these issues. I actually like the Canadian-British system here (control your shock)--they vote for the party they agree with and that party puts the people in places. This works even better for Democrats than for Republicans actually, because Democrats are all the same; nobody who deviates from the Party line is allowed anywhere near a spokesperson position. So you should be happy if that is your persuasion. But even if you are, like myself, a neo-conservative Republican, for the moment in control of the GOP but always being threatened from the right by the Pat Buchanan types and from the left by John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani ("the big tent" is just that--it houses a lot of different people), you can still benefit from seeing these things that way. I'm a Republican mostly because I agree with a certain set of standards that all Republicans hold to, at least loosely. Even if you are a Republican, or a Democrat, because your parents are, that at least shows that you respect your parents and their stance on the issues enough to accept membership in their Party. You have made a decision based on what you believe. Voting along those lines means you are actually voting your conscience.
Now, of course, some people will say, "But if a Republican candidate that seems more Democratic runs, should I vote the Party line?" I still think that if Parties were more respected, you'd have to wonder how a Republicrat or Demublican (John McCain and Zell Miller) respectively got to be their Party's nominee. Or, you could just use the bumper sticker, "Vote Republican. It's easier than thinking." Nevertheless I don't believe that voting for a candidate because he is a Republican and thus must espouse at least a loose idea of the values you yourself hold is necessarily anything inferior to trying to find someone who matches you blow for blow and end up voting for some third party candidate who only really agrees with you on one issue. This does, by the way, represent a shift in thinking for me, considering this past election was the first in which I voted entirely Republican, even with a Conservative candidate running for senate. You're free to disagree of course, and I'm sure you'll avail yourselves of that, but these are just some thoughts of my own and I'm not going to argue with you if you don't think it's right. I think it's worth thinking about though.
This is not going to be one of those wishy-washy posts that says, "I have come to realize that God is not a conservative Republican, and I was wrong, bla, bla, bla." I'm actually thinking of making bumper stickers that say: "God is not a Republican...He just likes us better." But anyway, what I really want to react against is the all-too-common notion that voting for someone based on their party affiliation is somehow inferior to some other reason. I don't particularly think it is...except for Democrats, of course. Just kidding, just kidding. Lighten up. Supporting Party candidates because they belong to your Party is probably an even better reason that supposedly "researching" the issues in each and every election. Why? Because registering with your Party gives at least some kind of indication that you have researched the issues and come down on one side or another. Thereafter, when you vote the Party line, you are in essence voting for your position on these issues. I actually like the Canadian-British system here (control your shock)--they vote for the party they agree with and that party puts the people in places. This works even better for Democrats than for Republicans actually, because Democrats are all the same; nobody who deviates from the Party line is allowed anywhere near a spokesperson position. So you should be happy if that is your persuasion. But even if you are, like myself, a neo-conservative Republican, for the moment in control of the GOP but always being threatened from the right by the Pat Buchanan types and from the left by John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani ("the big tent" is just that--it houses a lot of different people), you can still benefit from seeing these things that way. I'm a Republican mostly because I agree with a certain set of standards that all Republicans hold to, at least loosely. Even if you are a Republican, or a Democrat, because your parents are, that at least shows that you respect your parents and their stance on the issues enough to accept membership in their Party. You have made a decision based on what you believe. Voting along those lines means you are actually voting your conscience.
Now, of course, some people will say, "But if a Republican candidate that seems more Democratic runs, should I vote the Party line?" I still think that if Parties were more respected, you'd have to wonder how a Republicrat or Demublican (John McCain and Zell Miller) respectively got to be their Party's nominee. Or, you could just use the bumper sticker, "Vote Republican. It's easier than thinking." Nevertheless I don't believe that voting for a candidate because he is a Republican and thus must espouse at least a loose idea of the values you yourself hold is necessarily anything inferior to trying to find someone who matches you blow for blow and end up voting for some third party candidate who only really agrees with you on one issue. This does, by the way, represent a shift in thinking for me, considering this past election was the first in which I voted entirely Republican, even with a Conservative candidate running for senate. You're free to disagree of course, and I'm sure you'll avail yourselves of that, but these are just some thoughts of my own and I'm not going to argue with you if you don't think it's right. I think it's worth thinking about though.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 5:23 PM 
