Thursday, November 9, 2023

A Quandry

Years ago, someone I knew worked for a company that had a fleet of vehicles. Their insurance company required a safe driving course for anyone driving company vehicles. The course instructor made a suggestion: it was better to crash your car into a ditch than to have a head-on crash. The lesser of two evils may be the better choice.

Ronald Reagan said "Never say never." His point was that some situations required you to do something different. You don't want to limit your options ahead of time.

This past Tuesday was election day. Here in Houston the ballot had about ten candidates for mayor. With a large number of candidates, it was unlikely that either of the top two would get a majority of votes. A December runoff determines which of the top two candidates becomes mayor.

The top two candidates were liberal Democrats.. For months I saw ads on YouTube for one of the candidates. As election day came closer, his ads seemed a bit more conservative.

Of the other candidates, there were some who appealed more to my view. Other than the top two candidates, none of the others polled in double figures. That left me with the question whether to vote for a candidate of my liking, or to vote for one of the liberal Democrats.

While the candidate whose YouTube ads were not in line with my thinking, the other troubled me more.

Her name is Sheila Jackson Lee.

It was better for me to vote for the lesser of two evils rather than vote for a principled stand. I do not buy into the idea of "Don't waste your vote." In this case, though, I did not waste my vote. I voted for what I believed to be best for where I live.

Yes, it would be nice to get Sheila Jackson Lee out of the House of Representatives. But she is one of 435 in the House. There is only one Mayor of Houston. She could do much more damage as mayor.

I made the right choice.

1 comment:

  1. And, even though we go to a runoff, SJL was in 2nd place after the voting. So, the lesser of the two evils may end up winning because a lot of people voted and thought the same as you.

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