Trump vs. Clinton: Grim choice for conservatives. Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review.
No voter is under any moral obligation to judge whether Trump or Clinton is the lesser evil.
Refusing to vote for either one of them — by writing someone in, voting third party, or voting only for other offices — need not be an evasion of reality or a shirking of civic duty. It may be the right choice, at least if it is combined with tolerance for conservatives who make different judgments in this dismal year.Agreed.
As a resident of one of the reddest districts (TX-2) in the reddest State, just, it's highly likely that my vote for any office is going to be meaningless. For all of the talk about democracy and what not the fine State of Texas tradition of gerrymandering pretty much ensures that while the 'participatory' portion is encouraged, the effective is pretty much all but meaningless. As is any one, individual vote.
Politics in Texas has devolved into a shit-show of long-time party activists bemoaning how hard they 'fought' to 'build' something that probably shouldn't have been built in the first place. It's a clusterfuck of epic proportions to watch the modern-day Texas GOP convince itself that pay-for-play slates don't dominate, and that a large portion of it's electorate simply pushes the 'straight-ticket Republican' button on the machines and goes on their merry way.
In fact, Texas democracy has gotten so bad that the State is effectively broken at a functional level. It's probable that you have a better chance of getting something done in Italy than you do in Texas. Hell France probably has a better "git 'er done" rate than does the Lone Star State of today.
The Texas Agricultural Commission is ran by a buffoon, the Texas General Land Office is ran by a nascent political careerist whose election was brought about mostly by his name, and certainly not by his grasp of GLO issues, and the Texas Comptroller's Office is staffed by a man who is taking his cues from former disaster Susan Combs. All of this and we haven't even spoken about the AG who is under indictment for (and mostly likely guilty of) securities fraud, and a Governor who's idea of a strong political stand is making fund-raising pleas based on his pie-in-the-sky call for a gang of nitwits to conduct a Article V Convention of the States. Something that will never happen, but from the promise of which much campaign cash can be raised. When he's not talking about suing the Feds that is.
My Congressman, Ted Poe, is now supporting light-rail expansion in a city where it makes no sense, and is really not doing much of anything. Ted Cruz is marginalized, and John Cornyn is....well, he's John Cornyn, possibly the blandest man in Texas politics now that David Dewhurst has left the building. (thank goodness) On the bright side, he has a good head of hair. On the downside? He has a bad head for policy.
The Texas Speaker of the House, Joe Straus, is by all accounts a petty, vindictive man, who has decided that conservatives are the worst people in the world and the Lieutenant Governor is an avowed Theocrat with a monster Messiah complex and some pretty scary authoritarian instincts. In short, he's a demagogue.
Even more depressing is the fact that this group of clowns is in power because the Democrats don't even elevate to the level of a bad joke in Texas. Yes, they get pumped up by the sycophants working in the Texas Lock-Step Political Media, but when they get ready for prime time and to meet the Texas voters we're subjected to moon-shots for Texas education, ringing the damn bell, filling the damn boot, bad (horrible) singing political ads, a candidate who didn't campaign but apparently cooked some chili, a technocrat's technocrat and the most overrated pair of pink tennis shoes in modern history.
At least the Republican candidates, for all of their faults, could fog a political mirror. Texas Democrats are the equivalent of an intellectual pop-gun. In fact, they did us all a favor when they fled to the casino in Ardmore, maybe they should consider a permanent relocation? (hint: take the netroots with you. It will help, I promise, no one likes a group of people who continually call them stupid.)
The rub of all this is that, with the possible exception of people in Houston, Dallas and Austin, Texans are an agreeable lot, still (somewhat) self-reliant and unlikely to be caught up in all of the commotion surrounding the so-called "hot issues". Most people just want roads that are in better shape than those in developing nations (without tolls would be nice), secure neighborhoods, good schools and either trades education or decent secondary education for their kids. Issues such as sanctuary cities (the 'most important' issue of the next legislative session per the Governor) who takes the piss where (hint: let the market work it out) and all of the other issues you see on the news are mainly not on the public radar.
Until there's a party that starts talking about these issues there will continue to be more and more people pulling back from participatory democracy believing, correctly FWIW, that their single vote doesn't matter a hill of beans. The rub is, it doesn't. Because, in the grand scheme of things, one person sitting in a tiny voting booth pushing a button on any one race doesn't matter. Those who tell you that it does because of one race in Cut n' Shoot Texas that was decided by three votes is using the exception to try and prove the rule.
There are far more productive things you can be doing than campaigning, pimping your preferred party or voting even. Primarily you can be getting out there and getting work done.
That's where I am right now. I respect you if you are not, but the fight for conservatism is not going to be won by entrusting it to either the GOP or Democrats, it's going to be won by individuals working outside of the political system to make things better.
