Some of you will likely be shocked by that subject coming in an email from me. That's right. I voted for a Democrat. You may be asking what it takes for me to vote for a Democrat. Okay. Here it is:
Four elements are required for me to vote for a Democrat. They must *all* be present or my vote goes to the Republican. Even wrong-headed Republicans are preferable to Democrats under most circumstances. That's because I am a conservative and Republicans at least tend in that direction (I know that's a simplification and that there are problems with the Republican party. It frustrates me, too, but at least the Republicans are only questionable whereas the Democrats are actively destroying things I hold dear).
- The Republican has to piss me off. That means that the Republican proves him or herself liberal. In my case, we have a Republican who repeatedly called for gun restrictions and ran ads that had a lot of emotional appeal, but only by being unbearably stupid and fear-mongering.
- The Democrat has to oppose partial birth abortion. This requirement can be weakened to requiring that the Democrat has to at least match the Republican on abortion, but really, I just want to make sure that a ban on partial birth abortion is in the works.
- The Democrat has to at least match the Republican on gun control. No contest on this one. Since my Republican was actively calling for stronger gun control and the Democrat wasn't, it wasn't a tough call to make.
- The Democrat has to excite me with at least one of his positions. My Democrat is actively pursuing the local monopolies (you know, the phone, cable and electricity bunch). The Republican allowed these companies to regulate themselves. This is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Since this is an issue the Democrat actually advertised, I'm hopeful that it will at least enter the public conscience.
Well, there you go. I hope you're not too shocked. As you can see I have two hot-button issues and the rest is just general conservatism. Sure I hate corporate subsidies, but that's not enough for me to abandon Republicans for their baby-killing, soft-headed, gun-grabbing opponents.