If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say…
I haven’t written anything in some time because I promised to not beat up Mitt Romney until after the elections. And I will do my best to write this without being nasty about Mitt. Instead, I will be nasty about Mitt supporters.
Bill Whittle released a video saying that anyone who doesn’t vote for Mitt is making an immoral decision, which is utter tripe. But Bill goes on to say that if Mitt doesn’t meet expectations, he will primary him in 2016. This is also bullshit. Mitt voters will NOT challenge him in a second term no matter what. Why? Because voting for Mitt isn’t necessarily a principled vote. Some people really do love Mitt! Conservatives have convinced themselves that Mitt is an individual liberty and small-government guy (despite his record of “assault weapons” bans and socialized medicine). Mitt voters either agree with being middle-of-the-road moderates, or are deluded conservatives and will not primary him in 2016 even if (when) he signs a new 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, leaves “the good parts” of Obamacare in place, and doesn’t really reduce spending at all. No matter what, if Mitt wins in two weeks, he will get two terms out of Republican fanboys. And Libertarians and other principled voters will be again chastised for not jumping on board with the lesser of two evils.
Let me also add that I’m about 75% ready to vote for Mitt (as a tourniquet to slow the fiscal bleeding). And every time I hear some Mitt fanboy attack actual conservatives who won’t bend their principles, it makes me want to run out and vote for Gary Johnson. You can tell me Mitt has a better chance to win, but you can’t tell me he’s a better candidate. If you want to cheer for Mitt, go for it. However, you might want to ask yourself why you’re getting so angry with principled people for acting on principle. And like it or not, individual liberty and fiscal responsibility are not possible as long as the Republican and Democrat parties are our only choices. Real change has to start somewhere. Will it start with a vote for a boilerplate liberal or a boilerplate liberal Republican? Will you ever start living and voting your principles? Or will you go on voting the lesser of two evils and yelling at your friends who are too principled to continue flushing the country down the two-party toilet?
Great post; excellent argument. What did you get in return for pulling punches?
What do we have to lose at this point anyway; either we change course and safe ourselves from the pending doom (small percentage if you vote on principle), or we continue marching at a faster or slower pace (more likely to happen if you vote “safe”). It’s not much of a consolation to be able to say, “I told you so” if you vote on principle, but it is something and you’d be in the right to chastise those who didn’t follow in your lead.
Speaking of changing course, I recently finished a book that I think you’ll enjoy titled, “Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government.” It’s nothing ground breaking but it puts the entire argument (which covers a lot of information) into a digestible size, and they write brilliantly while doing it. It was a fun read.