Voting Options and Voting Duties

A lot of conservative Republicans, outraged that we are making the blunder of putting John McCain as our standard-bearer are threatening to not vote in the general election. Here's my take:

It’s 1976 all over again. Obama is Carter. Obama is selling his smile and 'change' - giving voters someone fresh and unsullied by the compromises and corruptions of recent years. It's "the biggest fairy tale" as Bill Clinton said, and he would know; he gave us a fairy tale in 1992. but Obama is a socialist who got the rating of most liberal Senator in 2007. Beyond pro-amnesty, he is pro drivers licenses for illegal aliens.

A Republican victory in 2008 will be better for the future America than a Clinton/Obama Democrat victory. It will ripple down 5,10, and 20 years, maybe forever. We dont know if the obama leftwing shift will be permanent, but history records that most of the time that is indeed what happens. There are dozens of policy points where McCain is better and more conservative than Clinton/Obama.

The Leftists are hankering for that victory and think it will be a significant victory:

This election could be the one that knocks back conservatism for ten years to a generation.

They may be right. We can always fight for more conservative candidates in future GOP primaries. What we will NOT be able to do is to take our COUNTRY back if our sovereignty is given away by Obama.
Republican conservatives lost the primary election to a RINO. We had the field we had and the GOP primary voters gave more votes to McCain than any other candidate. Some conservatives might sulk about that loss and compound the error by letting the most liberal Senator in the nation become President. ... Or, we can do something constructive.

The #1 constructive thing we can do is make sure in all the OTHER races, and there are many from US Senator down to local school boards - that we are fielding conservatives, supporting conservatives and voting for conservatives.
We need to continue to fight for conservatives at all levels of govt, and abdicating the GOP to non-conservatives will do great harm to our cause. Here in Texas there are a number of vital state-house and congressional primaries, with better candidates and lesser candidates. Dont give up on the party just because we got a less-than-satisfactory outcome in one race.

The second constructive point is that we still must vote in the general election for the more conservative choice. To not do so is to abandon the field to the enemy and harm the conservative cause. But more importantly, we must consider what is best for America?

Young men are giving their lives to defend our freedom. Anyone who will not exercise the right to vote that others have died for is squandering the inheritance they left to us. And if conservatives fail to do their duty, they leave our nation’s sovereign power fall in the hands of those opposing more political and economic freedom. Bad, unpatriotic and counterproductive all way around.

You can vote for less freedom, vote for more freedom or not vote at all. But the voting duty of a patriot is to stand for freedom.