Thoughts on voting and principles

Andrew Sullivan posted an email from an 18 year old writer the other day. The email read:

"I agree with your post on the Younger Generation not being able to vote Republican! I'm 18 and this will be the first time I have voted. How can I vote for them when my Brother is Gay and has been in a solid relationship for 5 years and President Bush sees them as a threat to marriage! HOW can they be a threat to other people's marriage? A secretary having an affair with a married man is a threat to a marriage; my Brother and his partner are not! Homosexuality isn't even an issue for my friends!"

I've been thinking a lot about that email, and other posts on Andrew's site, lately. I have some questions for the 18 year old and for Andrew.

I have seen suggestions on Andrew's site that perhaps electing Kerry is necessary to "shake up" the Republican party, that a Kerry administration might help clean out the "hard core conservatives" from the party. (I personally wouldn't call people who want to pass laws to control other people's private lives "conservative". I'm not sure what the right term is - perhaps social activists?)

What does it mean to be a conservative? That at the first sign of trouble you abandon your principles and support someone who doesn't represent your principles at all?

I believe conservatism means a belief in the smallest government possible to do the job, fiscal restraint on the part of government, decisions being made at the local level, whenever possible, and a federal government focused on protecting the nation's borders and people, maintaining domestic tranquillity and ensuring that the law is upheld fairly and equally for all. Which Presidential candidate most closely represents those beliefs? Certainly not Kerry! Yet some would abandon their principles simply because they passionately disagree with the President on one issue!

To lay my cards on the table - I am uncomfortable with the concept of homosexual marriage, and I'm concerned about its impact on the nation. However, I do not believe it is an issue that should be dealt with at the federal level. (I also don't believe abortion is a federal issue, even though I am strongly opposed to abortion. I don't think the federal government should have laws regarding abortion nor do I think it should be funding abortion with my tax dollars.) I have no problem with homosexuals living together or having consensual sex. It's not any more of my business than my life is anyone else's. I think the home should be sacrosanct and the government should only intervene under the most egregious of circumstances. (If this 18 year old is any indication, homosexuals will win this battle in the future anyway.) OTOH, I'm just as happy that the state of Texas has laws preventing homosexual marriage as I am that Democrats no longer control the state government. I think there are other ways to handle the problems of survivorship, contractual obligations, home ownership, etc. than to allow homosexual marriage.

I have to ask - how does abandoning your principles to "spite" a candidate or express your anger with a particular plank of a platform benefit you? John Kerry has been very clear in what he believes, despite all the rhetoric about his "flipflops". He believes in appeasement and negotiation with terrorists, kowtowing to European interests even when they run counter to US interests and slavish obeisance to the UN. If Kerry is elected, particularly to two terms, we face the possible prospect of a worldwide increase in terrorism and Wahabbism and the attendant hatred of homosexuality, including the risk of beheadings. Will this benefit the homosexual marriage movement positively? I doubt it!

Are you willing to prostitute your principles simply to make a point? To hope that in the future you'll benefit personally? ISTM that this places you in the same category as politicians like John Kerry and Bill Clinton, blown about by every wind of political change.

America has a long, proud history of overcoming apparently overwhelming odds. Ronald Reagan lost his Presidential bid three times before being elected. Imagine what our world today would be like if he had given up after the third try! If he had felt that he failed, rather than he hadn't yet suceeded! If the Republican party doesn't represent your values, then find a candidate that does. I can assure you, John Kerry does not. But do not give up on principles to make a point.