From Laurie Higgins:
I live in Illinois where incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn is being challenged by multimillionaire and “socially moderate” Republican Bruce Rauner. The multimillionaire part doesn’t bother me and shouldn’t bother anyone who loved JFK or loves JayZ and Queen Bey. It’s the euphemistically called “socially moderate” part that irks me. Social moderates and the state and national GOP’ers who support them irk me so much that I am revolting. I will not be voting for Bruce Rauner. He will damage the Republican Party in ways Quinn never could. He will damage the Republican Party in the same ways our socially immoderate Republican Senator Mark Kirk is doing.
And Rauner is deceitful.
Not only will I not vote for Rauner, but I’m also voting for Quinn. I want to do everything possible to ensure that Rauner is not elected. If conservatives continue to accept the Mark Kirks and Bruce Rauners—deceptive men who don’t understand how essential the “social issues” (to use the condescending, reductive, evasive term of cowards) are, then we will get more of them. And while they’re in office, they will corrupt the party (or to borrow biblical language, leaven the bread). The Rauners and Kirks will disseminate their views on the “social issues” within the party and in the twinkling of a cataracted eye, the “social issues” will be removed from the party platform.
I regret not having voted for Democrat Alex Giannoulias in his senatorial campaign against Mark Kirk. If Giannoulias had been elected, the GOP would be working feverishly to unseat him. Will they expend any effort to unseat Kirk who has betrayed social conservatives at every turn?
I didn’t vote for Kirk either. I like other conservative Republicans didn’t vote for either lousy candidate. But no more vacuous, self-righteous gestures. If by not voting for either candidate, conservatives seek to thwart Rauner, why not ensure his loss by voting for Quinn? Unless and until the powers that be in Republican circles realize that conservatives will sabotage their darlings, they will keep sending us Rauners and Kirks. Just look at what’s happening in the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign where the state GOP guttersnipes will evidently stop at nothing to prevent Massachusetts Republicans from having the choice of a conservative candidate. Sabotage in the voting booth is the only power conservatives have left.
I’ve met Rauner. In a meeting with him last fall with some potential big donors, Rauner was asked about his position on same-sex “marriage.” He answered, “Frankly, I think the idea of two men marrying is just weird.” When asked about abortion, Rauner answered, “I believe that life begins at conception.” These responses led me—colossal dupe that I am—to believe that he opposes the legal recognition of homoerotic unions as marriages and that he opposes abortion.
Within a few days of this meeting, he announced his first-trimester pro-choice position. And last spring, he skipped an Illinois Right to Life event but made an appearance at an ACLU event celebrating the “right” of mothers to have their babies destroyed in the womb—you know, those babies whose lives Rauner believes begin at conception.
In August, a revelation of just how “weird” Rauner finds the fanciful notion of same-sex “marriage” appeared in the Chicago SunTimes. If you’re still teetering on the edge of feckless nose-holding for Rauner, perhaps this hearty Rauner endorsement from two homosexual activists from Chicago will steer you to a more radical but potentially more meaningful vote…
Read more: BarbWire.com
