Commentary: Straight blue-ticket votes

1 month ago 54

On Oct. 21 my husband and I cast our votes for Kamala Harris for president, Colin Allred for senator and every other Democrat straight down the ticket.

This is not how it always was. Politics makes strange bedfellows and that was never truer than when Tom and I married. He is a lifelong Democrat; I was a dyed-in-the wool Republican.

We used to joke about going to vote together so we could cancel out each other’s votes. That all changed when the Republicans nominated Donald Trump, who is neither a conservative nor a Republican. I left the party and took not just my vote, but my volunteer time and my money with me.

How Republican was I? I walked door to door passing out literature. I alphabetized lists, made phone calls, addressed envelopes. I was a teacher and had my summers free to do office work of all kinds, all as a volunteer.

This effort culminated in my being appointed to the Reagan/Bush speakers’ bureau in 1984 and then a worker for the White House advance staff for George H.W. Bush in 1988 and 1992. I had a low-level security clearance, got to work with the Secret Service, met the president and first lady, and rode in a motorcade. I did all of this as a volunteer, working around my full-time work schedule.

My decision to leave the Republican Party was neither difficult, nor emotional. But it was done with regret, and some anger. I cannot forget the sight of Trump sitting smugly for an interview and saying that if he ever ran for office, he would do so as a Republican because “they will believe anything you say.” I never thought that so many people in my party would fall for his snake oil. But I was wrong.

This year, not only did I happily and confidently vote a straight Democratic ticket, but I did it also to save the Republican Party.

I still am basically conservative. I am pro-life. I want secure borders. What I have found is that there is respect for all those beliefs in the Democratic Party. And there is something more. Something big. I love the Constitution of the United States; so do the candidates in the Democratic Party.

Kamala Harris represented a moderate voice for citizen-centered policies. Harris respects the Constitution and will protect it, not attack it by sending a foul-smelling mob of insurrectionists to the Capitol in a petulant attempt to overthrow a free and fair election. She speaks the truth, instead of leaning on lies as a substitute for substantive discussion. She respects all Americans, not just the lickspittles who have been cowed into blind obedience by a pusillanimous bully.

But I also wanted Harris to be president because I want to be a Republican again — someday. I can’t and won’t rejoin the Republican Party as long as it is the neo-fascist manifestation of Trump’s dark, incomplete and jejune thoughts. Trump and the handlers who manipulate him are a carbuncle on the butt of the GOP. Like all carbuncles, the only way to drain off the pus and allow healthy tissue to grow is to lance the whole ugly mess.

This is going to take more than one election, but it will happen. Over time. Someday, long in the future but hopefully in my lifetime, Tom and I will be able to go to the polls and cancel out each other’s votes. But until then, we will happily join hands and give our vote, time and money to the Democrats.

I chose to vote for my country, my Constitution and my president, Kamala Harris, because I keep the faith.

Louise Butler is a retired educator and published author who lives in Edinburg. She writes for our Board of Contributors.