THE HOPES AND FEARS OF ALL THE YEARS

We’re on the eve of the most consequential mid-term election of my lifetime.  I’ve been waiting two years for this day, and even though I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome, there’s so much at stake that, as election day approaches, I just want it to be over. 

I have a voting philosophy which has served me well for the past couple of decades, and I offer it to you now, just in time for the 2018 mid-terms:  The worst Democrat is better than the best Republican.  I’ve voted by mail, and I marked my ballot for Democrats straight down the line. 

Why?  Because, however mavericky he or she may seem, any Republican who’s elected to the Senate will vote to retain Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader.  There aren’t any maverick Republicans in the House, so whoever House Republicans elect as their next Speaker of the House is sure to be a bad guy – Jim Jordan or someone like that.  Put it this way.  The best Republicans are still Republican, and Republicans gonna Republican. 

Every last Republican in Congress is either one of Donald Trump’s deplorables, or is terrified by the prospect of offending deplorables.  Every last Republican in Congress lusts after megabuck donations from right-wing billionaires like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch family.  Fear and greed are the twin drivers of Republican policy.    

Maybe your local Democratic alternatives are less than inspiring.  Maybe you have an opportunity to vote for a third-party candidate who’s personally charismatic, with genuinely progressive policy positions.  I’m saying don’t do it. 

Unless they’re Bernie Sanders or Angus King, they’re going to lose the election to one of the major party candidates, and the vote isn’t likely to be close.  They’ll never get a chance to implement the wonderful progressive policies they support.  Worse than that, voting for a progressive third-party candidate will only help elect a Republican, who will actively oppose progressive policies.

Yield not to temptation.  Vote for the boring Democrat.  And don’t pout about voting for “the lesser of two evils,” either.  What’s wrong with that?  Reducing the amount of evil in the world is worth doing.  At a minimum, it’s better than using your vote for empty virtue signaling. 

I’ll give the final word to Andrew Sullivan, a man I often disagree with.Recently, Sullivan wrote this in NEW YORK MAGAZINE: “I have many issues with the Democrats, as regular readers well know. None of that matters compared with this emergency. I don’t care, in this instance, what their policies are. I am going to vote for them. I can’t stand most of their leaders and fear their radical fringe. I am going to vote for them anyway. Because it is the only responsible thing there is to do.”