If you are a conservative Republican, read on. If not, you might want to skip this.

In honor of primary day in Virginia, I share the following e-mail thread posted by various members of my family yesterday, ending with a message from my son (no, I'm not proud), the graduating-in-May Political Scientist:

From my brother, Jim:

Okay, listen here. I have had an epiphany! Much as I swore I never would, I will be voting for McCain on Tuesday. And I have B. Hussein Obama and Hillary Rob 'em Clinton to thank. I have listened to them ramble about how my dear Uncle Sam is going to watch over me and use my money to do it. I have listened to them describe how they will benevolently rob me of my freedom. The interesting thing is that they are not trying to hide their intentions. I appreciate and applaud their honesty. I have come to the conclusion that McCain can't be anywhere near as bad as these two would be. I hear the strains of a Stalin style totalitarian government in Obama's words, and a Marxist style government in Hillary's words. I desire neither. We the people defeated the McCain/Kennedy amnesty bill. Little did we know that that was a precursor to the work we will have to do to keep McCain in check. Maybe he'll surprise us, but don't hold your breath. I will not sit this election out, nor will I vote for a style of government which have proven record of failure over the past several centuries. Let Limbaugh and Coulter do what they want. I need one more person to go along with me and we can cancel out their votes. Personally, I suspect that this is a sham on their parts to try and energize the conservative base. If that was their intent, then give me a pink bunny costume and a bass drum. You all must vote your conscience, and I'm sure you will. God bless you, one and all.

From our mom:


Jim - Your reasoning is the best I've heard - and, of course, you are right. You have your second person - and I think you will have more than a few others with you, too. Mitt Romney would have been my choice; however, it was not to be. And perhaps Mitt, like Newt, can do just as much good for the Conservative causes in a position that he never anticipated. We need strength in other areas to "fight the good fight" - especially if a Democrat should be elected.

...and P.S.: Your mother knew that you would never sit one out!! You are much too intelligent for that! Your love for your country is something I treasure and admire very much - in you and in all our children.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Love, Mom

From Ben:

Here is why I'm voting for Billary II. If McCain gets elected the Republicans will continue to lose ground in Congress and when the whole thing is a pile of dung in 4 years I want the Democrat administration to get hammered, not a pseduo-Republican administration that acts like a Democrat administration. To paraphrase Mario Cuomo "When you run a Democrat against a Democrat you get a Democrat". I will not vote for our Democrat. McCain is going to destroy the soul of the party and I'm not voting for someone who is going to promise me a strict constructionist and then give me David Souter. (He's done that) A vote for McCain is a vote for the Rockefeller wing of the party and I won't be party to that. I'm calling fire down on my position. I'm voting for the toughest man in the fight... Hillary. Say it w/me "President Hillary!" BTW, Rush is going to turn, trust me, he's in your camp. - B

Jim again:

That would work if the MSM will hammer the Dems, but they won't. They never do. McCain will not destroy the soul of the party, he will continue the destruction. Both Bushes have pushed the GOP closer to the left than anyone thought possible. With the exception of the war in Iraq (which Rumsfeld helped him bungle), SCOTUS appointments and tax cuts, W is a big government eastern liberal Republican. Without the aforementioned positions, he too would be a RINO. Do I like McCain? No. But when faced with the choice of Stalin, Marx or McCain, I'll take my chances with the latter. The GOP has been on a downward spiral for several decades. The only say "We the People" have is to cast our votes. Our government has been stolen from us, and our country is hot on its heels. Voting for Stalin or Marx will only speed up the process. Once you give the huddled masses something they think is a "right", you'll never pry it out of their greedy fingers. Class warfare works. I am very sad that it has come to this, but I think this may be a turning point in national politics (probably not, but I can hope). Thinking people are not happy with any of the choices. Unfortunately, we are outnumbered by the morons who don't have a clue. Time will tell.

Mom again:


Ben - you mention several good points - but imagine where we'd be if Gore had won in '04. I am not as pessimistic as you - and my Dad taught me many things - among them to have some faith in "we, the people". I know a man (quite well) who has spent his political lifetime stating "people are stupid". There are times when I absolutely agree, but more times that I don't. George W. hasn't been all bad for us - but now we face the prospect of whatever good he did being undone by the left, whether it be Obama or Clinton. You are right about our choices: there wasn't one of them (not even Romney) in whose oratory (?) I saw "the shining city on the hill". We ache for a Reagan - and I have a hard time accepting that somewhere out there, we won't find another. Maybe I don't have a clue, either!

Love, Mom

And finally, from Mike, a 23-year old Political Science student: (if you're still reading, let me shake your hand)

About the choice between worse and atrocious…

I won’t work for support for McCain – quite frankly, he is a liar and a charlatan; either one makes him not worth my time. And yet, I find it equally (if not more) awful to directly oppose him. Don’t get me wrong, I disagree with him on every domestic stance I can think of which he has spoken on in the last ten years. I disagree with his (understandable) position on torturing enemy combatants; I think that if our enemies are dumb enough to be captured on the field of battle, they should pay for their crime of opposing us with all the information they can give us – and we should actively make them as uncomfortable as possible until they give us that information.

All this being noted, McCain also is not planning to nationalize a trillion-dollar industry (medicine). He is not planning to raise the average federal tax rate to economy-stifling levels. While his assertion that he was “the only Republican to support the troop surge” is factually incorrect (and he knows it), he is not publicly planning to end the war on Al-Qaeda’s terms. I can’t think of anything that would make me more righteously angry than for our next president to bail on the mission of people who died to see it through. What is their sacrifice worth, if we don’t have the moral fiber to give everything for victory in their memory?

Also, there is something else that is not widely known which you may want to consider. After Romney’s withdrawal speech, he met with the current leadership of the conservative movement (think Gingrich, Armey, and Morton Blackwell, just for starters – there were 50 conservative leaders in the room, and those are the only three that I’m almost sure were there). Long story short, Romney is now running the conservative organization. If you have studied Romney’s past at all, you know that he is at his best when leading an organization of experts. What we have, then, is shaping up to be Romney and the conservatives against either McCain, Hillary, or Obama. If his past performance is any indicator (single digits in national polling to roughly 32% by the end of his campaign), Romney will win most fights with McCain, and stands on roughly equal footing with Hillary. I would put him on slightly weaker footing against Obama, just because Obama is a fantastic orator. (By the way, if Obama wins Virginia , watch for Hillary to tank quickly. If Hillary is Giuliani , Virginia is Florida .)

The choice for me comes down to this: Do we elect Billary or Obama, who we will fight around 90% of the time; or do we elect McCain, who we will fight on only important issues, about 20% of the time? Either way, we’re back to being in the minority – but with McCain in office, we have the opportunity to expose him for the fraud he is. Also, it is a lower-risk environment in which to rebuild conservative momentum. It is always rough going when building a political movement; but when both houses of Congress and the President are against you, it takes a 1994 miracle. I believe in the raw leadership ability I have seen in Romney – but I would not ask him to lead the charge into an almost-sure defeat. By not working against McCain, I’m trying to give him something to work with. I can’t stand McCain, and I’ll make my choice whether to vote for him or not by looking at his choice for Vice President; but I can’t vote for a baby-slaughtering, big-spending, tax-raising, cut-and-run supporting, amnesty-granting, Ginsberg-nominating, feminist-apologist, Marxist-Leninist, social-entitlement-expanding, HillaryCare-creating Trotskyite. And I also refuse to sit out the election. So I’ll have to see who the VP candidates are – I’ll be voting for them this time around.

Mike