Shooting Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face
By Mitch Berg
I haven’t talked – here, anyway – about last week’s primaries. I’m a little astounded, to be honest – Minnesota Republicans defied Trump’s misguided endorsement and the misdirecting bleating of “Action 4 Liberty” and voted for Michele Tafoya for Senate and Lisa Demuth for Governor.
Neither is a perfect conservative. Either were the most conservative candidate who could win. Not saying they will – although Peggy Flanagan is vulnerable, and an October surprise from the Feds would make the governor’s race interesting.
But let’s talk about the opposition.
Alycia Gruenhagen is running a write-in campaign against Tafoya, calling her “pro-choice”. Which is technically true – she’s got the same stance as President Trump has, and as I recall Gruenhagen was a solid Trump supporter. She’s one of a group of Minnesota Republicans who apparently believes that a vote is representation of one’s aspirations, not a way to push policy.
I keep asking them this.
Let’s say there’s a candidate – call them Candidate A – who favors abortion until birth and after. She’s got 45% of the vote before the election.
There’s a moderate – Candidate B – who would ban abortion after 12 weeks. B has 40% locked up.
There’s a hardliner, Candidate C, who would bulldoze Planned Parenthood and salt the earth. C has 1% of the vote.
If you are a pro-lifer, there are five options (since voting for “A” is presumably a no-go)
- You can vote for B, reducing A’s lead. If enough follow suit, B could win.
- You can vote for C, which doesn’t reduce As lead and making B’s path to victory one vote harder.
- You can write in someone else. Again, doesn’t reduce A’s lead.
- You can abstain. Same result.
Any choice but #1 makes a pro-infantide victory more likely – in effect, making your pro-life vote a pro-choice vote.
Ms. Gruenhagen seems to have blocked my comments on her website, so the logic must be an issue…
