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Voting Against
Tomorrow’s election will see me voting for two Democrats. That’s the first vote I can remember casting for a Democrat since we first moved to the San Antonio area in the late ’80s. At that time, our local (D) state legislator had a 100 percent rating from the NRA. We later moved to a much more rural county. Our candidate for county commissioner this time is a complete grifter (I know him personally). He is the only local candidate who actually has an opponent. I’ll make a protest vote for his Democrat opponent (who is a decent guy).
On local issues, there likely won’t be much difference in their decisions but I want the local party to see bigger numbers against someone I see as unfit for the office. The same goes for our Texas agriculture commissioner, another all-hat, no-cattle politician.
I really, really hate voting for someone with a “D” behind their name, but I can’t see any other way to express my discontent. And I was very involved in the primaries at the local level, so it wasn’t like I didn’t try. The fact is, I know that my vote won’t make any difference in the outcomes, so maybe that makes me insincere.
I still plan to grit my teeth and check the box for the two D opponents. We have had Republican Party domination here for a long time and this is the inevitable outcome – all the grifters know which party to use to get elected.
Published in General
I feel your pain.
There aren’t a lot of things that would prompt me to vote for a Democrat right now, but opposing corruption in office is one of them.
I am on record here as opposing a Republican candidate exactly once, when I argued against electing Roy Moore to the Senate. I got a lot of pushback for that, but thought it was the right choice to make because I think the man betrayed his office in a particularly unacceptable way, by simultaneously rejecting the authority of a superior court while demanding that citizens respect his own court’s authority. That’s a kind of corruption I just can’t accept.
Fortunately I am free to vote straight (R) here. Unfortunately, a family health emergency has me boarding a flight at 6am Tuesday morning. I’m checking now to see if I can vote today.
A vote for any Democrat is a vote for corruption. No matter how bad an individual Republican might be, it’s time to hold your nose and vote him back in. Unless the Republican is really Jeffrey Epstein or Dahmer when we’re not looking, at least he won’t be Jeffrey “Emmanuel” Goldstein. Better one dirty Republican than another enabler of filth from the left.
I think the local level if the Democrat is halfway decent is fine. The only time I have voted Democrat is in local elections. The biggest one was against a corrupt Republican Property appraiser.
But yes when one party or another dominates a system the party becomes very corrupt. You just have to look at the Alaskan Republican party to see it works both ways. I think Democrats are more easily corrupted, but Republicans in Texas defiantly have an anti-classic liberal streak that shows up a lot when the behaviors disgust them.
The best example of this was like 10 years ago when they went after Mormon Polygamy. Trying to take 100% of the kids away from the mothers and put them into state care. When there was zero evidence the mothers were mistreating or abusing their kids. Judges overruled this blatant abuse of power that would have been really bad for the kids also.
I see that in Florida with Republicans. Desantis and the Republican legislator have an authoritarian streak that is not as bad as your typically controlled Democrat state. But still very anti-freedom and all about giving the state and Governor more power and less checks.
It seems like you know what’s up and have solid reasons for your decision.
At the local level if you can find someone that has acted on issues in a way that benefits you, and your community then party affiliation is not as important.
On the national level there have been some pleasant and unpleasant surprises. Sinema (D) of Arizona has been a pleasant surprise. Democrats will attempt to primary her when she is up for election. Romney (R) has been an unpleasant surprise. Cheney (R) has already been taken care of by Wyoming voters.
Well, I’m not anywhere near there so I can’t speak intelligently on your situation.
But I will point out that:
So, while I certainly won’t be telling you how to vote, I think we would all be interested in hearing how your local situation interrelates with the larger context, the county and state levels.
A lot of the stuff that a county commissioner does (depending on the county, of course) is not particularly ideological in nature. The difference between a Republican and Democratic governor can be huge. The difference between an R and D for the position of authorizing road maintenance is probably a lot less substantial.
The local candidate is one of four county commissioners who along with the county judge run the county government. I know all of them and I’m confident the grifter won’t have much success. I suspect he will find a reason to resign before his (4 year) term is up. As one of the 7 county fire chiefs I work with the commissioners court frequently and I think our agency has a good reputation, so we won’t have any issues.
As far as the state agriculture commissioner goes, he will likely cruise to reelection. He mostly does stupid stuff to get attention and doesn’t have much effect on most people’s daily lives. I honestly think that a (D) winning a state wide office might get the attention of the state (R) party officials. If it’s someone who can’t do much damage maybe the party will wake up and reform will happen. We used to be a state full of yellow dog democrats and now we are a state full of yellow dog Republicans.
I planned undervoting, again, for our congressional seat. The Republicans sacrificial lambs get worse and worse. At first the candidates tried, then they were lightweights, then their positions went against my values and now they are a joke. It does send a message when other races receive votes in a wave election but one of them doesn’t; whether party types are listening is another issue.
It is always acceptable to leave a race blank. That way you are not empowering people who should not be empowered.
My Republican Congressman is a corrupt windbag and my Bush-Republican Governor may as well be a Democrat. I wouldn’t vote for a Democrat, but I wouldn’t vote for either one of them, either.
If I were sufficiently younger, I might write “Oh, snap!”
So many important votes are party line that to a great extent, for legislative positions the individual candidate is less important than the party. If I was a communist in Pennsylvania, I would vote for Fetterman in spite of his brain injury because he will vote straight Democratic in the Senate.
Not a surprise. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Before there were Bushes, there was George Romney. Nobody’s surprised that Fidel Castro’s boy is a totalitarian thug. No one should be surprised George’s kid is a pampered little wuss.
Her opponent is an Election Denier and was endorsed by Trump.
Hopefully she’ll mop the floor with Katie Hobbs, and with you.
Although if the Democrat road maintenance guy knows you’re a Republican on the road needing maintenance (maybe with other Republicans on the same road), you might not get the snow plowed until spring, or the gully across the road filled in until it has several vehicles piled in it….
Ninety-nine percent of people are not that petty. I guess I trust Text929rr to know what he is doing.
I pondered this problem…well, not precisely this one: Most of the local races have Democrats I know and (generally) like. But I voted red all the way down. I want the Democratic party to feel some serious pain.
Lots of communists in Pennsylvania. I think I called the major driver of the election, although Oz being new to the Republican party & to Pennsylvania didn’t help. Democrats are actually policy driven – they obviously don’t care if the delivery boys for the policies are brain damaged or demented.