The Conservative Cat

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October 25, 2006

Notes from Ferdy - I Think We Really Do Need Single-Issue Voting

In the past few weeks, there's been a lot of talk about conservatives staying home in November to protest the general failure of Republican politicians to adhere to conservative values. This is especially difficult here in Illinois, where the top of the ballot on the Republican side is occupied by Judy Baar Topinka, who is just as liberal as her Democratic opponent and has the additional drawback that she plays the accordion. Bruce says that going into a small enclosed space with Topinka's name in it is a scary and depressing prospect. I imagine that many conservatives have similar problems.

The difficulty with staying home on November 7 is that we are sitting on the precipice of a real disaster. I have no doubt that if the Democrats win in November they'll indulge in exactly the kind of unrestrained craziness that took them out of power back in 1994. Unfortunately, we happen to be in the middle of a war. It is not a war against a nation, but a war to establish a single, critical principle, namely that it is wrong to kill people based on their religion. This is not the first war fought for that principle, and it won't be the last, but losing will not make us safer any more than the loss of Viet Nam stopped the spread of communism.

The prevailing wisdom on this election is that it is a referendum on the Iraq War. I suspect some pundits say that because they think a referendum on the war would lead to a big win for the Democrats. But if this is a referendum on the Iraq War, then Republicans have to win big. It is our only chance to convince the world that the real people of America are very different from the ones quoted on the evening news.

When you are fighting a nation, all you need to do is capture a few leaders and establish control of the key tracts of land. When you are fighting for a principle, you have to show you aren't going to give up. It's not anger at America that creates terrorists, it's the idea that terrorism works. Terrorism only works because we're spineless. We have an opportunity to show some spine and we can't screw it up!

So go out and vote. In an ideal world, we wouldn't have to make this kind of choice, but in an ideal world Shi'ites and Sunnis wouldn't want to kill each other, so we have to set priorities.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

# At Wed 6:19 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (3) | More Notes from Ferdy | Tags: conservative Democrats Illinois Iraq Republicans voting

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Posted by: Suldog at October 26, 2006 2:59 PM

Posted by: Jean at October 27, 2006 1:12 AM

Posted by: Amina at December 1, 2006 8:07 AM