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REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

4/22/2008

Local Observations in the
Pennsylvania Primary

PA-State.jpg

Spent a little time at the polls this morning. If our polling place is any indication of a statewide trend (and it generally isn’t), Hillary is going to do very well in Pennsylvania today.

We live in a heavily-Republican rural area of south-central Pennsylvania. I spoke with maybe two dozen voters this morning. About a third of them had switched registration to democrat for this primary alone, and every one of those switcers (with the exception of one who did not divulge her vote) voted for Hillary. As I had suspected, it would appear that the majority of Pennsylvania republicans who switched their registration to democrat for this primary (reportedly in excess of 100,000 voters) did so in order to vote for Hillary Clinton -- or, better said, in order to vote against Barack Obama.

That is not to say that Hillary will win the Pennsylvania primary by the enormous margin needed to continue to consider her a viable candidate, but she certainly is receiving support (from republicans) in this area. Of course, voting tendencies in any part of the ‘Pennsylvania T’ are quite often cancelled out by the Philadelphia -- and, to a lesser degree, Pittsburgh -- area vote, where support for Obama is extremely strong. When dead people, canaries and people whose registration address is a vacant lot are allowed to vote, it’s difficult to overcome such nebulous political ‘support’.

A friend who is attending a local (although in another, more liberal, county) campus of Penn State stopped in for a visit last night and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. He reports that the large majority of students on his campus are Obama supporters. The popularity of this anti-American ‘leader’ on college campuses today unpleasantly transports me back to the sixties, when young self-proclaimed ‘rebels’ would vote for anyone promising ‘change’ – knowing little about what that ‘change’ would entail.

Never thought I’d be hoping for a decisive win for Hillary Clinton. Just goes to prove the wisdom of the adage 'Never say never ... '

P.S. I voted for Ron Paul this morning. I despise his isolationist/pacifist ideology, but could not in good conscience vote for John McCain or Mike Huckabee. Considered writing in my (deceased) Dad’s name, but I heard his voice whispering to me, 'Joanie, leave me out of this debacle.' :)

~ joanie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Joanie. Tonight will be interesting.

Anonymous said...

Never thought I’d be hoping for a decisive win for Hillary Clinton. Just goes to prove the wisdom of the adage 'Never say never ... '

Ditto, say to say. We've hit bottom in America.

Luis said...

Never thought I’d be hoping for a decisive win for Hillary Clinton. Just goes to prove the wisdom of the adage 'Never say never ... '

Indeed- times of crisis create some unlikely "allies" !!

Anonymous said...

Considered writing in my (deceased) Dad’s name, but I heard his voice whispering to me, 'Joanie, leave me out of this debacle.' :)

LOL! Love it, Joanie!

Anonymous said...

Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos continues apace. Although the media are ignoring the phenomenon, apparently over 100,000 Pennsylvanians switched parties just to vote for Hillary, and will re-register as Republicans tomorrow or next week.

The idea, of course, is to keep Hillary in the race in order to watch the democrat party tear itself apart at the convention.

One part of me says, "This isn't right", but another part says, "It's going to be fun to watch."

So far, the "fun to watch" part is winning. I don't feel guilty at all, because the dems did the same thing to us by dumping McCain on us like a steaming pile on the doorstep of conservatism.

Joanie: You did good by voting for Ron Paul. I understand your predicament and agree with your choice.

Anonymous said...

Huckabee, Paul Get 28% in GOP Primary [In PA]

McCain got 222,109 votes. Ron Paul got 49,430 votes, and Mike Huckabee got 37,201 votes -- yet the Republican primary race is over. So, if you do the numbers on this, you'll see that 28% of Republican voters are declining to get with the program. 28% of Republican voters in Pennsylvania last night did not vote for the Republican nominee. Does it mean anything? I don't know. You be the judge.