Vote For The Best, Always

Christmas Eve we had dinner with, among other people, a friend who'd just become a naturalized American citizen a week or so previously. I never got around to writing about it, but I was moved by his account of why, as he put, "I am no longer German." Simple things, you could probably guess them, but mostly he just didn't see any hope in Germany any longer. This lovely reflection is what triggered my memory. From a Russian immigrant:

When freedom came I knew what I wanted in it."

"What was that?"

"To come here. To be here. Quick to America."

"Why so quick?"

He shook his head and looked at me as if I was the one who didn't understand English.

"Because in Russia, freedom can go away. Here never. If I vote for best."

RTWT and note what he says about "party."

Going from the moving to the practical, Prof. K. says it's time to rally behind McCain...but not too loudly. I don't mind that Conservatives hold McCain's feet to the fire a bit --it's good for him to sweat-- but this nonsense about staying home to teach him a lesson or to effect party purity.... That might make sense if there were a guarantee that after 4-8 years of the most liberal American administration in history, the American people would wake up and return to the Constitutional Republic they are meant to be. Far more likely is that 4-8 years down the road people, being resilient, will have made their peace with what is then the status quo. People can get used to a lot.

And it is virtually impossible to ever dial a government program back. Remember our god-man Reagan? He promised to eliminate two federal agencies (Energy & Education), and instead he kept them and gave us a new one. If he couldn't get rid of the Education Dept., where is the Great Conservative Hope who will? The one who couldn't even defeat McCain? I seem to recall an op-ed in the Gray Lady opining the best thing that could happen to Republicans would be a blow-out in the 2006 election. Set us up nicely for 2008 didn't it?


And for those of us who are pro-lifers, what about all the actual children aborted --now on our dime-- under the Obama administration? I can't imagine being hit by a truck or succumbing to cancer in the next few years and greeting the souls of those children on the day of my particular judgment and saying, "Yes, I could have spared your life, but I wanted to teach the Republican Party a lesson." And what would I say to the Iraqis who lose their life on the cusp of a better future because American pulls its troops out precipitously -- a thing the Vatican and the US bishops oppose, their opposition to the initial war notwithstanding? Votes have consequences beyond parties.