Jan 26 2008
Dare not vote your conscience!
Imagine the scene is an Illinois Republican Party conference at a suburban Chicago hotel. A man walks up to one of the tables displaying campaign materials. This particular table is staffed by two Rudy Giuliani volunteers, each engaged in a cell phone conversation. As one of the volunteers closes his phone, the man picks up a brochure about “Team Rudy.”
Volunteer: “Have you signed one of our petitions yet?”
Man: “I don’t really know who I am supporting yet.”
Volunteer: “That’s ok, these are just to get Rudy on the ballot. There is no obligation to support him and you can sign petitions of multiple candidates.”
The man signs the petition and then asks: “What does Rudy think about ab…”
Before the man can finish his thought he is swarmed by an angry crowd of people screeching: “SINGLE ISSUE VOTER!!!” A well dressed lady kicks him in the shins and another hits him with her purse. A large man grabs his arms while someone else slaps him repeatedly with a stack of “Team Rudy” pamphlets.
Angry mob member 1: “How dare you vote based on a single issue?”
Angry mob member 2: “You just want Clinton to win!”
Angry mob member 3: “He was mayor of New York and he cut crime!”
Angry mob member 4: “You ignorant hicks shouldn’t even be allowed to vote!”
Angry mob member 1: “A president can’t do anything about abortion anyway!”
Angry mob member 3: “Clinton and Obama both like abortion more than Rudy does!”
Angry mob member 5: “Security! Security!”
Angry mob member 2: “Yeah Rudy is the only one that will give us security!”
Angry mob member 5: “No, I’m calling for security! We need to get this rabble rouser thrown out of here!”
Angry mob member 6: “It is absurd to not vote for who you are told over a single issue!” (He kicks the man in the groin just before security arrives to drag the beaten man from the hotel. The man is tossed into a waiting police car, where he is read his rights.)
As the police car pulls away from the hotel the man says to himself: “I just wanted to know what Giuliani thought about absentee ballots.”
The preceding scenario did not really happen, but it seems to me that many Republicans (especially Giuliani supporters) get nearly hysterical when it seems that someone may consider abortion or a candidate’s personal character when deciding who will receive his or her vote. Any mention of abortion is likely to elicit accusations of ignorance or of casting a vote for Hillary by default.
Abortion must be an important issue to be the one that garners the dreaded “single issue” label. Taxes, the war, the border, the economy, China, amnesty, socialized medicine, global warming, global cooling, earmarks, steroids in baseball, which channel NFL games are on, and any other issue, real or imagined all fail to inspire the “single issue” wrath. The only issue that is deemed important enough to stand alone as the “single issue” is the only one that is not to be considered when deciding for whom one will or will not vote. Wait, that isn’t entirely true, we are also not allowed to consider personal character indicators such as taxpayer funded adultery.
How low must we go before we are allowed to decide for ourselves? How much farther must we travel in the direction of increased governmental control and eventual socialism before we can voice our true opinions? How much thought control will be too much before we are allowed to exercise judgment?
I guess until we have had enough, we will be accused of being sophomoric if we express our disgust with our party in ways that our party would not approve. So be it. For those of you that think it is childish to vote one’s conscience I can only so:
“Nanny nanny boo boo, I may not vote the way you do!”
