RECALL: thinking conservatives vote NO

[Capn Sunshine]

Just a reminder that we may have a pretty good chance of beating this thing back:
Jonah Goldberg, who appeared on The Daily Show last night; old column excerpt:

"A hallmark of a functioning democracy is the practice of holding timely elections. A hallmark of republican government (and please remember America is a republic), is that the people do not decide what the government should do. They decide upon who should make those decisions.

.snip.
Well, how much courage do you expect to get from our politicians when the polls in effect have binding consequences? What happens when low poll numbers serve as chum in the water for every opportunistic politician and activist group who wants to take down an elected politician who makes unpopular but necessary decisions?

The answer is simple: he won't make unpopular decisions in the first place. He will lick his finger, hold it up to the wind and spend his term being led by the often fickle, inattentive and selfish voters rather than trying to lead them.

Punishing voters for their poor decisions is vital because that's the only thing that imbues voting with any significance. Politicians, particularly liberal ones like Howard Dean, like to shout about how voters "have the power" to change things and how people have to take their obligation to vote seriously. Well, that's really only true if their votes have lasting effects. If voters think they'll get a "do-over" if it turns out they made a mistake, voting really won't matter that much.

.snip.
Punishing voters for their poor decisions is vital because that's the only thing that imbues voting with any significance. Politicians, particularly liberal ones like Howard Dean, like to shout about how voters "have the power" to change things and how people have to take their obligation to vote seriously. Well, that's really only true if their votes have lasting effects. If voters think they'll get a "do-over" if it turns out they made a mistake, voting really won't matter that much.


http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20030704.shtml

more on this groundswell of conservative law and order as it develops.

[mitchtv]

1. thinking conservatives

???????????????????????????????? sorry lost you there