Comment on a Comment - Georgia Runoff

I got a comment today from someone going by the moniker "An American Idiot," sort of related to last week's post about the Georgia Senate Runoff election, and I felt like it was worth posting up front so I could respond:

Elliot you are a guy with too much time on your hands! One good reason to vote Republican in this runoff is to insure there IS the ability for the minority to have a voice. As we have seen Nancy Pelosi is not the most open minded person who has ever led the House. When one party controls everything you get group think. This is bad. Think about that when you are standing there ready to drop your vote. I have more on this topic on my blog @ http://anamericanidiot.wordpress.com/

Hi, An American Idiot - thanks for taking the time to comment. First, in response to your comment about "having too much time" on my hands, I can only assume you're referring to my "Mustaches I Have Admired" post. What can I say, I'm between gigs.

I also wanted to respond to your plea for me to vote Republican in next week's Senate runoff here in Georgia - not going to happen, and here's why:

1. I think Saxby Chambliss is a corrupt dinosaur who still believes in trickle-down economics, and I would have an exceedingly difficult time voting for a guy who engaged in really despicable campaigning the first time he ran for the Senate, smearing Max Cleland, a genuine war hero, as not being brave enough to take on Al Qaeda. Once upon a time, John McCain thought that was pretty disgraceful, too, but apparently not so disgraceful that he didn't mind putting in a couple of appearances here in Georgia on Chambliss' behalf over the last couple of weeks.
2. It's not my responsibility as a voter to make sure the minority party has a voice, it's my responsibility to vote my conscience; if enough people feel differently than I do, Chambliss wins, and the GOP has that extra hedge in the Senate. That's the way a democracy is supposed to work. This year, Republicans lost seats in the House and the Senate because people thought they have been doing a lousy job - and I agree with that, so why would I want to help them out, especially someone like Chambliss, who I believe is part of the problem?
   
3. I voted for Barack Obama, I believe in his agenda, and I'm not going to do anything to put an obstacle in his path.

One other thing - you mentioned Nancy Pelosi, and that she's not the "most open-minded person who has ever led the house." It's true, she's been as partisan as her Republican predecessor - but that has no bearing on this particular race. Here's something to consider - the new leader of her party, the President-elect, has made it pretty clear that this is not the time for partisan nonsense. He's setting a tone, and to further his policy agenda - one that Pelosi presumably agrees with - the Speaker of the House is going to have to adopt his tone, because he's going to need support from the other side of the aisle, as broad support is what's going to enable our recovery to get going.

One last thing to consider, as well - assuming that the Democrats do not get to sixty seats in the Senate, there are still going to be issues where the filibuster is busted, because there will be issues where two or three moderate Republicans will be willing to side with the Democrats to get business done.

That's how I see it, anyway.

Thanks for reading,
EB