By Scott Tibbs, November 10, 2003
Some people say Republicans should support all Republican candidates even if they do not share our values. After all, the alternative would be worse. I could not disagree more with that statement.
I am a Republican. The reason I am a Republican is because I am a conservative. I believe in limited government and individual rights. I was a Democrat before Bill Clinton was elected, and I switched parties because I realized my views were much better represented by the Republican Party than by the Democrats.
However, just because I am a Republican does not mean I will automatically support any Republican candidate. If a Republican holds views that are in opposition to mine, that lessens the chances of that candidate getting my vote. If my disagreement with said Republican candidate is on a core issue such as free speech or abortion, the candidate loses my vote.
This is not to say that a Democrat who shares my views will get my vote. I won't vote Democrat for state legislature, and especially not for U.S. Congress or U.S. Senate. A vote for a Democrat in those positions, even a conservative Democrat, is a vote for a decidedly un-conservative legislative agenda. This is because the leadership of the Democratic Party is liberal, and voting for a Democrat for Congress, the Senate, or the legislature keeps that leadership in power. That Democratic leadership then retains the ability to kill conservative legislation or advance legislation that is contrary to a conservative world view.
The Republican Party, to me at least, is not a social club. It is not a means for a clique of friends to gain political power. The Republican party exists to further core conservative values. It makes no sense for conservative Republicans to vote for someone who will vote against our views. We conservatives have stood by for far too long while the government gets bigger, taxes go higher, freedom of speech and religion are infringed upon, our right to keep and bear arms is slowly taken away, and, most importantly, unborn children are slaughtered by the millions. I'm not willing to compromise these core values to get "the lesser of two evils," because, as a friend reminded me once, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
