12 October 2008

No on Palin

A conservative votes against McCain...because of Sarah Palin:
In the end, I couldn’t do it. My California ballot arrived in the mail today, and I opened it fully intending to vote for John McCain. I filled out the state propositions first — yes on 8, no on everything proposing a new bond or new spending — then the local offices, straight Republican excepting Kevin Johnson for (nonpartisan) Sacramento mayor. Finally, the vote for President of the United States: an academic exercise in California, where Barack Obama will surely win by a crushing margin. But good citizenship demands voting as if it matters. Do I believe in John McCain? Not as much as I used to. Do I believe in Sarah Palin? Despite my early enthusiasm for her, now not at all. Do I believe in the national Republican Party? Not in the slightest — even though I see no meaningful alternative to it. So, my choice for President in 2008, scrawled in my ballot as an act of futile protest, is Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. If nothing else, I am confident this is the first of several votes I will cast for him in years to come.
Side note: While I appreciate the vote against McCain (even if it wasn't for Obama), this guy's "yes" vote on Prop. 8 slays me (even if it doesn't surprise me). I still don't see how denying gay men and women the right to marry is "conservative." Since when is writing discrimination into the state constitution a "conservative principle"?!?

Make no mistake - the Republican Party of 2008 is NOT the Republican Party that elected Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. That Republican Party no longer exists.