I've never been a single issue voter but I am now.... I'd vote for almost anyone who is other than those who are typical Republicans these days. And would exhort others to as well.By "others" I think he meant me. I don't know if I'm a "typical" Republican or what a typical Republican even is, but I thought I owed my friend an explanation for my particular preference in this election so I wrote him the following apologia.
You may agree or disagree with some or all of it. Feel free to express your thoughts (courteously) via email. Here's my reply (slightly edited):
It's hard to argue with what you wrote in your recent email. I appreciate the stance you articulated in your "rant." I agree, for instance, that Oz and Mastriano are both unfortunate nominees, I voted for neither of them in the primaries and was very disappointed that they both won.
So, rather than debate the points you make let me simply explain why I nevertheless have to vote for the Republicans in this, and every election in the foreseeable future, for the sake of the country.
The way our political system is constructed we don't vote for a person so much as we vote for a party. Individual politicians only matter insofar as they give their party a majority or are at least in positions of party leadership.
Set aside, for a moment, [Democratic senatorial candidate] John Fetterman's character. If he wins in November the Democrats stand a good chance of controlling the senate and that would be calamitous, in my view, for the nation.
President Biden would have a free hand in appointing radical judges and may even get select another Supreme Court Justice flummoxed by being asked to explain what a woman is.
The senate majority would be dominated by a party a large portion of which consists of those who believe that abortion should be allowed at any point up to birth and even afterward, that men can get pregnant, that children should be mutilated in order to satisfy their gender confusion, that drag shows for children are harmless fun, that matters of sexual expression and orientation should be taught to elementary school children, that young white children should be inculcated with the conviction that they're indelibly and irredeemably racist, that sexually explicit books belong in elementary school libraries, and that parents who complain to their school boards about any of this should be designated domestic terrorists by the DOJ.
It's a party which has devastated one of the best economies in history through profligate spending and regulation, and which is mortgaging our future in their myopic opposition to fossil fuels and nuclear power before green energy becomes available and cheap.
It's a party which has created chaos on our southern border - has essentially done away with the border altogether - and then lies to us about it, assuring us that the border is "secure."
It's a party which perpetuates poverty by forcing poor kids into miserable schools and denying them an opportunity to go to effective private or charter schools.
And it's a party that has sought at every opportunity to curtail the first amendment rights of free speech and freedom of religion as well as the second amendment right to protect ourselves from the army of criminals that they've allowed to take over our streets.
Electing someone like John Fetterman to that body would simply ensure that the rate of cultural and economic decline accelerates.
Fetterman is radically pro-choice, he's in favor of open borders, he opposes school choice for the poor even though he sent his own kids to private schools. He never had a real job until he was elected mayor of Braddock, PA, living off his parents' wealth for much of his adult life.
In an act reminiscent of the Ahmaud Abrery tragedy, he once grabbed a shotgun, jumped into his pickup and chased down an innocent black jogger who he mistakenly thought had fired a gun. He then held the man at gunpoint until the police arrived.
He accosted that particular man, evidently, for no other reason than that he was black. It would be interesting to hear his reply were he asked to tell us what he would've done had the jogger just ignored him and kept on running.
His plan to reduce the prison populations by a third shows the kind of judgment he has. He once promoted the release from prison of a man who brutally hacked another man to death with garden shears and who was subsequently given a life sentence.
Mr. Fetterman actually voted for the man's release when he chaired the Board of Pardons.
He supports increased funding of public schools but was delinquent in his own personal school taxes for years.
Woodland Hills School District, which serves the town of Braddock, placed nearly three-dozen tax liens against Mr. Fetterman totaling $18,692 for unpaid property taxes from 2006 to 2019.
Add to all that the complete irrelevance of some of his ads, like the one claiming that "Oz wouldn't last two hours in Braddock." So what if Oz isn't a tough guy like the hoodied Fetterman? What does that have to do with being a senator?
Say what you will about Oz, one thing he's demonstrated is that he's smart and has done a lot of good for people in his medical career. He developed several surgical devices used in cardio-thoracic surgery and has performed numerous successful heart transplants.
I don't know that Fetterman has ever accomplished anything comparable to what Oz has.
Finally (although I'm sure I'm leaving something out), Fetterman refuses to put himself in front of the public by debating Oz until well after a lot of mail-in ballots have already been cast. He and his people know he's a weak candidate, that a recent stroke has severely affected his ability to think and speak clearly, and are counting on the media to cover for his debility like they did for Mr. Biden's cognitive difficulties in 2020.
To be sure, Dr. Oz is a carpetbagger, a publicity hound and a political novice, but even so he's in my opinion an immeasurably better choice than Mr. Fetterman, and keeping the senate out of the hands of the progressive left is an outcome the good of which far outweighs all of Dr. Oz's faults.
