Nope. I will not damn my principles for a 3rd consecutive election. Especially not for this trojan horse.
I once felt that way. In 1992 I didn't vote for President because Bush lied when he said, "Read my lips..."
Enough Republicans felt the way I did that we ushered in 8 and maybe 16 years of clinton. The worst part of that decision was the MSM touted Bush's problem that year day after day and subsequently reinforced my decision to ignore Bush. Ergo, I was a puppet for Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and whoever the puppeteer was at CNN. Rush Limbaugh hadn't made it to the Big Show yet, so Bush had no defenders beyond National Review, and their readership has always been too small for any sea change.
I like principles as much as the next guy. One of mine is this nation...going in the right direction...or more slowly in the wrong direction...is still to be saved and worth saving. Eight and, maybe, sixteen years of clinton is a pretty high price we paid because too many people like me needed our candidate to jump smartly through every hoop.
If you really voted for Bush, McCain and Romney, and now plan to sit it out, then you are voting, pure and simple. Bush was never going to win 10 electoral votes in Minnesota. Nevertheless, I regret to this day that I didn't vote for President in 1992.
I'm not going to sit it out. I'm not voting for a NY Liberal, either. I am voting to try to bring another party into the fore. That will take time, but I'm not voting for a
person so much as the principles they stand for, and they are in the Party Platform. If this year's person gets to uphold those principles, all the better, but that, in casino parlance, is a longshot.
I voted GOP until the GOP morphed Left, then voted for TEA party backed candidates here, because our TEA party groups were still not compromised by a national cadre, composed of GOP 'Moderates'. When most of the folks the TEA party movement helped get elected promptly forgot their promises at the podium by the time they were sworn in, it was obvious the GOP had moved on.
Oddly enough, a serious period of introspection pretty much proved I had not changed my positions on issues one whit. The GOP had moved on, to the Left, even as the Democrats like Hubert H Humphrey likely would be rejected as GOP candidates today for being too conservative, and not for being liberals.
I won't waste my vote. I'm voting against the Democrat and the Republican, on the basis of those principles I have held so long, but which both of those parties have, in practice, ignored of late. You can find them in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and in the voluminous writings of the Founders.
Let the chips fall where they may. Without awakening the somnolent and distracted population to the impending disaster that has been created by the Federal Government, it will continue in its state of normalcy bias, and the Republic will be lost. Drifting slowly to the Left will run us off the road just as effectively as cranking the wheel over, just fewer will be awake when that happens.
You are free to vote as you choose. Go for it. Save the world. My one vote will make little difference here, but when I face my Creator, at least I will be able to say I voted my conscience.
