I feel that most may concur with my sentiments that this primary season has been eventful and rather, in a word, depressing. We started out the primary season with many candidates, quite a number of them are great conservatives. And now we are left with a liberal lite RINO, a tyrannical blowhard and a snobby less than pure conservative junior senator.
I, like others, had great hopes when we entered this race. Where have we gone so horribly wrong? It seems that the Republican parties failed policies and continued push on voters to “give us the majority in the House” and “give us the majority in the senate” and thing will get done. To only have been met with “Well we tried, and Obama won’t let us do anything, so give us the presidency too!” Voters and formerly staunch supporters of certain candidates who have strong conservative records and lists of accomplishments have all become so disillusioned that candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz became the poster children of their crushed feelings and animosity toward the party.
Not that I am defending the party leadership, but there is a rather large difference in supporting a genuine, winning candidate with a conservative record whom the party somewhat dislikes and someone who is outright vile and thinks calling people out in public after private discussions is hard core and inspiring. In one leap and bound we have gone from peaceful activism to full out assault on the party leaders and refuses to work with anyone.
In 2012 I was a staunch supporter and volunteer for Rick Santorum, so joining agains this past time was a no brainer for me. He had a strong record of accomplishments, getting conservative legislation passed while working with his colleagues on his side of the isle and across. A deep understanding of foreign policy and immigration, he should have been a shoe in after coming in 2nd behind Romney. But the field flooded, and others saw the affect of his message and took bits that they claimed for themselves, Trump essentially took Rick’s whole blue collar message and morphed it and voiced in his bombastic way. Cruz, after taking Rick’s hard line immigration policies went from a C on Numbers USA and now has an A+.
I have been thinking and praying hard about since after Rick dropped and I switched to supporting Rubio, who then also dropped out the next month. It leaves me with pondering what will let my conscience rest easiest, knowing that I used my vote and voice. The primary process for me has always been a way for me to vote for my candidate no matter what happened prior to. I voted for Rick in 2012 even though he had dropped out the previous week, and he still was competitive and took 2nd place over Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich who were still running. I’m not saying that is what will happen this time, as a write-in that is highly unlikely.
I just know that for me, writing in my candidate keeps my conscience clear, especially when I feel that none of the three candidates running are really deserving of my vote in the primary. Call me crazy, but this is my firmly held belief. The general will be different, but in the primary my vote will always go to the true conservative with the best record.
Shawn Fitzgerald 