...and planning to sit out this election or throw your vote to former Representative Bob Barr -- elections matter. Because of judges.
As Lex notes in his post on yesterday's decision regarding child rape (and you may rest assured the Left will note if today the Court rules the 2nd Amendment is an individual right) -
Effectively, any time 5 of those judges, of whatever ideological stripe, sitting in secret conclave, agree on a subject... the are a de-facto Constitutional Convention.
That's right, boys and girls - 5 people can rewrite the Constitution, and it doesn't have to be ratified by anyone.
Remember the long, hard fight over the Equal Rights Amendment? That didn't succeed, but lots and lots of people had input into the process? Well, as the Left discovered, just find the right judges and issue, steer it to the Supreme Court, and you've only got to convince 5 people. No more of that pesky democracy stuff. No more of that ugly sausage making in the legislatures. Nope. Just find 5 like-minded people.
Judges matter. Elections matter. Regardless of if you like Senator McCain, he's going to appoint judges that are more likely to give conservative issues a friendly hearing on the Court than the judges Senator Obama will appoint.
Elections matter. Don't stay home.
The Left isn't going to stay home.
Update: Responding to Heller (I thought it would be better than a 5-4 decision, too, frankly) Say Uncle sums it up nicely:
As Lex notes in his post on yesterday's decision regarding child rape (and you may rest assured the Left will note if today the Court rules the 2nd Amendment is an individual right) -
Think of the power that has been gathered by the judges. Judges who, once appointed, are life-tenured, and accountable to no one unless they shoot someone on the step of the Supreme Court building.Unlike the SCOTUS majority however, I’m unable to impose my personal beliefs upon the people of Louisiana and their democratically elected legislature. No matter how more fully evolved I believe myself to be. All of their votes count more than mine. Because I am not a Supreme Court justice.
Effectively, any time 5 of those judges, of whatever ideological stripe, sitting in secret conclave, agree on a subject... the are a de-facto Constitutional Convention.
That's right, boys and girls - 5 people can rewrite the Constitution, and it doesn't have to be ratified by anyone.
Remember the long, hard fight over the Equal Rights Amendment? That didn't succeed, but lots and lots of people had input into the process? Well, as the Left discovered, just find the right judges and issue, steer it to the Supreme Court, and you've only got to convince 5 people. No more of that pesky democracy stuff. No more of that ugly sausage making in the legislatures. Nope. Just find 5 like-minded people.
Judges matter. Elections matter. Regardless of if you like Senator McCain, he's going to appoint judges that are more likely to give conservative issues a friendly hearing on the Court than the judges Senator Obama will appoint.
Elections matter. Don't stay home.
The Left isn't going to stay home.
Update: Responding to Heller (I thought it would be better than a 5-4 decision, too, frankly) Say Uncle sums it up nicely:
What's that reason? Click here to read why Say Uncle said what he said.I hate to say it but that one reason is why I’ll hold my nose, get good and hammered, and pull the lever for John McCain. And I’d have to shower after that too.
Nice!
Well, *Jack*, if I may call you *Jack*.......I am one of those idiots. I have backed McCain in every race he has ever run. He is my candidate. He always was. He always will be. Therefore, it would be my opinion that anyone who runs against him for that sake of running is a spoiler. Mr. Barr is a spoiler.
Further, anyone who doesn't want Barack Obama for President and doesn't back McCain is less than intelligent. No one cares about your "message" and your "lessons". There was no smoky backroom deal to nominate McCain. He. Got. The. Most. Votes. If the far right wing of the Republican Party is upset, they need to GET OVER IT. I don't want to suffer through four years of far left hell because some group thinks John McCain is not conservative enough.
This is as simple as simple gets - Obama is bad for America. McCain is your only realistic alternative.
Sure I wish the Republican Party stood more for Republican ideals. Sure I wish John McCain saw it my way on illegal immigration. I also wish M&Ms had no calories. I wish my days were full of nothing but spa treatments, M&Ms and sex. Does this mean I am quitting my job, walking away from my mortgage and go live a life of debauchery? No. I live in the real world.
The voting booth in November is not the place to "send messages". It is the place to vote against the socialist candidate.
Like Maggie, I've supported McCain from the beginning. I don't agree with everything he says, but that's, strangely, part of the reason I support him. He seems to actually say what he believes, regardless of what the focus groups would have said ( if he had any...).
Go figgre.
LOL. You know, that was so good, I think that ought to be it's own post.
But, but - I thought that's what Maggie did already? Or have I been misreading all these years...?
McCain will have to earn my vote. Emotional extortion won't be enough.
Therefore, I work.
However, I was smart enough to chose a career path that allows me to collect a salary for flirting with old men on the phone and in the storefront.....making them more breathless than they were before they needed the home oxygen. As you can imagine a shameless hussy with more than a passing interest in the military, an obsession with John Wayne and a more than passing knowledge of history is a big "old-man-fave".
The rest is debauchery.
With McCain you a chance.
What do you have with Obama?
Gotta get ready to stop the gun grabbers next attacks, and there will be more.
VOTE McCain!
If you like all his postions, great.
If you cannot stand him, but know he will appoint better judges than O'Bambi, still vote for him, no matter how much it hurts!
I will be in the latter group, but we will all be better off if he wins than if he loses.
This country is going to hell in a hand basket either way. How fast do you want to get there and who do you want blamed for it?
If McCain becomes C-in-C, I'd feel obligated to show him some respect.
If Obama gets in, on the other hand, I'd feel obligated to shower him with all the love and support and loyalty his side showed the current incumbent.
It is too early for me to commit to McCain. He may yet transform himself and repudiate McCain-Feingold and amnesty and reaching across the aisle. He could start sucking up to the people he has spent most of his career dissing. Maybe. Could happen.
Cannoneer - "Fear of Obama is all McCain has going for him." I beg to disagree. You can disagree on immigration policies and campaign finance reform, etc........but who do you want dealing with Iran, Iraq, etc? Obama? Please! Barr? LOL!
My number one issue is national security. If we are not secure here at home and secure in our interests abroad, what does it matter what the President does otherwise? It doesn't. If the CINC can keep us safe from outside threat, we can work out the rest on our own.
What is Obama going to use to protect us after he guts the military?
You may be peeved with McCain for his Gang of 14 and his work with Feingold and Kennedy and I understand, I wasn't too pleased myself. However, it shows he can work across the aisle. For all his supposed hair trigger temper, he manages to get things done with people he doesn't necessarily agree with. That's an important asset for a President.
He has solid answers when he's asked a question and he can speak extemporaneously as opposed to "I can't hear myself".
He has experience. He earned his way and paid his dues. Obama is a fluke. Obama is where he is today because Jeri Ryan got skeeved about going into a sex club in Paris with her husband. Full Stop.
Yes I fear an Obama presidency, but it's not my only reason to vote for McCain. I was going to do that anyway. I would have voted for him against any Democratic candidate. Fear of an Obama presidency is a reason I give to stragglers who want to "send a message".
Most of all, I beleive in John McCain. I believe he is the one who speaks to me and my feelings about America.
Obama wants you to know he thinks America is broken. That it needs to be healed. That he is hope for a hopeless America.
What nonsense! John McCain will tell you that America is the greatest country in the world and he wants to help us realize her ideals. That's the view that speaks to me.
The desperation of McCain apologists was mildly amusing to those who enjoy schadenfreude. Was being the operative word here.
McCain will be a lame duck the day he gets elected. He will spend his single term reaching across the aisle, and he will nominate the justices the Democrats in the Senate tell him they will approve. If I was still a conservative the slim chance that McCain just might possibly slip one by and put a Justice on the Supreme Court who ends up saving the Republic might be enough reason to vote for him.
I'm not a conservative anymore. I'm a Logical-Rationalist Cultural Revolutionary who doesn't need a Stockholm-syndromed RINO in my line of fire.
Who is demanding anything from you? I and others are merely pointing out that Barr has no shot and Obama is poison.
With a veto-proof Congress and his demonstrated proclivities for breaking ranks and turning coat, what can you guarantee me that Maverick John McCain will prevent?