Steve Skojec

I suddenly remembered today what I didn’t like about Chuck Baldwin: His rhetoric. Reading like nothing so much as an obnoxious “I Told You So”, his column is insulting, condescending, and self-aggrandizing. Allow me to excerpt, with my emphasis and comments:

“In fact, in this column, weeks ago, I stated emphatically that John McCain could no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton. He didn’t.” (Read: I told you so.)

“I also predicted that Obama would win with an electoral landslide. He did.” (Read: I told you so, again.)

“Bush’s portrayal of himself as a conservative Christian paved the way for the betrayal and ultimate destruction of conservatism (something I also predicted years ago).” (Read: I told you so, yet another time. I’m wicked smart.)

“The greatest tragedy of this deception is the way that Christian conservatives so thoroughly (and stupidly) swallowed the whole Bush/McCain neocon agenda.” (Read: You’re stupid. I’m not. I predict things. Ahead of time. Like a smart guy. Cause I am. Smart, that is.)

“The James Dobsons of this country should hang their heads in shame! Not only did they lose an election, they lost their integrity!” (Read: I’m so much better than you other Christians. And no, I don’t read Luke 18:9-14 when I’m acting in the capacity of “Pastor Chuck”.)

“Then there was the pathetic attempt by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to scare gun owners regarding an Obama White House.” (Read: Did you hear that? Pathetic. Oh yes - I went there.)

“A majority of evangelical Christians in South Carolina stupidly rejected Bob Conley and voted for Graham.” (Read: See previous note, and add “stupidly”as appropriate.)

“Across the country, rather than stand on principle, hundreds of thousands of pastors, Christians, and pro-life conservatives capitulated and groveled before John McCain’s neocon agenda. In doing so, they forfeited any claim to truth, and they abandoned any and all fidelity to constitutional government. They should rip the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of their Bibles. They should never again tell their children, parishioners, and radio audiences the importance of standing for truth and principle. They have made a mockery of Christian virtue.” (Read: Again, you do not compare to my Christian awesomeness and virtue.)

“And since it is unlikely that the Republican Party has enough sense to understand any of this and will, therefore, do little to reestablish genuine conservative principles, it is probably best to just go ahead and bury the scoundrels now and move on to something else.” (Read: Did I mention everyon in the G.O.P is stupid? I have? Well, good. It bears repeating. Stupids.)

And yes, this is the guy I voted for.

Now, to be fair, I voted for him bases on his issue platforms, because those are what will be noted when the GOP revisits a third party candidate who picked up a decent number of votes as they noodle the direction they want to take. What they won’t replicate is the zany Baptist condescention of the man, who sets me on edge when I read screeds like this. It’s not the conduct of a decent man to be so condemning - EVEN THOUGH I AGREE WITH VIRTUALLY EVERY NON-PERSONAL-CHARACTER-ASSASINATION POINT HE MAKES IN THE ARTICLE. The GOP is self-destructive, and yes, a lot of Christians sold out. Many did not, and acted according to their conscience as best they could. These would be primarily the pro-lifers, not the “I vote Republican because I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” types. And yes, these people exist, and what they do - voting out of tribal politics rather than more substantial reasons - is arguably foolish.

But pounding their faces in it is unlikely to change anything.

Which brings me, in a circuitous path, again to the title of my post. I voted for a man who I can be this critical of because I knew it was a doomed vote to begin with. My point was to send a message to the GOP - “I don’t want a guy who supports issues like that; I do want a guy who supports issues like this.” Chuck Baldwin the man - like Ron Paul before him - is far less of a thing than the sum of his political philosophies. He might just make a miserable president. But I was, in a very real sense, not voting for president. I was voting for the things I want in a president to be represented in an actual presidential candidate some day - hopefully, a candidate who doesn’t sound half the time like a founding father and the other half like he’s, to borrow from the poet-laureate Ozzy Ozzbourne, “going off the rails on a crazy train.”

The advantage of voting quixotic is feeling good about pulling the lever for a candidate you agree with on policy. The disadvantage is knowing that if the guy espousing those policies ever actually made it into office, you might really regret it.

Some day, I’d like to believe that third parties will have a saner, less obnoxious future. Today is not that day.