This week @KSPrior announced her intention to vote third party in November. I completely understand. I did that in 2016. And I believe that she is 100% right to resist the accusation that she is "throwing away her vote" by doing so. That's a thin, thoughtless argument.
But I'm not where I was in 2016, and I thought perhaps it would be worthwhile to offer some public accounting for my change in thinking.
First, I reached a point of being glad that the candidate who received my vote was not elected. Third-party candidates simply aren't vetted the way that major-party candidates are. That's not a reason never to vote for one; it's a reason to discount enthusiasm for them.
Second, as I've stated in other fora, my estimations of a hypothetical Trump presidency were so bad that the actual reality of a Trump presidency was better than what I had feared.
[These first two points collectively indicate my inability to predict the future. This is why voting is a suitable matter for much prayer on our part.]
Third, let the historical record forever reflect this: A time came when people like me who had voted Republican for multiple decades were disgusted with the GOP and were actively shopping for alternatives. How did the Democratic Party respond to this moment?
^^ That's how they responded. They decided to answer mean-spirited, exclusionary Republicanism with mean-spirited, exclusionary Democratism, but on steroids. Only ONE of the two major parties is actively kicking out black elected officials who don't toe the line.
And it isn't the GOP.
And so, the answer to disaffected Republicans, like I was in 2016, was the back of the Democratic hand. I have almost every reservation I had about President Trump in 2016. But I'll probably be voting for him in November.
I don't think that's because I've caved on any of the things I held dear in 2016. I think it's, above all other things, an indication of how hostile the Democratic Party has become toward an entire segment of the American population.
And to be perfectly clear, let me remind you (story linked above) that segment of the population they're kicking to the curb includes not only a white Southern Baptist from Lake City, Arkansas; it also includes a black Democratic politician from Memphis, TN.
I respect Karen's decision and her right to make it. I'm just offering the POV of someone who once was in that same frame of mind but is there no longer.
As if my tweet thread wasn't long enough already, let me append this: Democrats try to peel away disaffected Pro-Life Republicans by saying, in effect, how can you take this one issue (abortion) and make it more important than anything else?
What hypocrisy.
The Democratic Party is NOT the party of "abortion isn't so important a matter." Abortion is important enough to the Democratic Party to boot out of the party altogether an African American Democratic lawmaker from Memphis.
That's one of 1000 examples of how important abortion is to Democrats.
