I don’t use this feature as a platform for political endorsements. But I did want to tell you about who I voted for in the presidential election this week, and why I did it.
On Thursday, I waited in the short line at the Wrightstown Village Hall and filled out an in-person absentee ballot. In the presidential race, I skipped past all of the names in the box and filled in the circle for “write in”. Beside that, I wrote the name of Adam Kinzinger.
For those who are not familiar, Kinzinger is a 46-year old former Republican Congressman from Illinois. Before that, he was a member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, flying tanker and surveillance aircraft missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He would probably still be in Congress had he not made the correct and courageous decision to vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol. Kinzinger was also one of the few Republicans to serve on the January 6th Commission looking into the events leading up to and during that darkest day in our democracy.
That service should not have come as a surprise, as back in 2016, Kinzinger explicitly stated that he would not support Donald Trump in that (or any) year’s presidential election. That year, he introduced the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, which would provide the funding and manpower for US intelligence agencies to monitor the efforts of countries like Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran to influence our elections through social media and the internet. Even at that time, Kinzinger recognized the danger represented by a Trump presidency.
It wasn’t just Trump that Kinzinger called out for conduct detrimental to the country. He also voted to censure Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for her insulting comments, and he called for the resignation of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz during an investigation into allegations of human trafficking. When redistricting pitted him against a very pro-Trump Republican from a neighboring district in 2022, Kinzinger chose not to run for another term, knowing the make-up of the modern GOP would not let him win that primary race.
In a farewell address to Congress, Kinzinger evoked memories of George Washington and Ronald Reagan–warning his fellow Republicans that they had lost their way, throwing their continued devotion to a man that embodied none of the conservative ideals or beliefs and cared only about his own enrichment. He also pointed out that Democrats had actually fed the MAGA machine, providing financial support to pro-Trump Republicans in primaries against traditional conservative candidates.
Since leaving Washington, Kinzinger has worked with the Country First political action committee–backing candidates across the country that oppose the Trump ideology, and that of the extreme left as well. He is a frequent commentator on CNN and real conservative podcasts like The Bulwark. And this summer, he spoke at the Democratic National Convention on the dangers of a second Trump term.
During that speech, he urged all conservatives to vote for Kamala Harris–so you might wonder, “Why aren’t you doing what your guy encouraged you to do?” Well, Adam was employing sound military strategy: Neutralize the immediate threat, and deal with the consequences after. In a world where the vast majority of voters see elections as a binary, “one or the other” decision, it’s the best advice he could offer.
But when you listen to Adam talk away from the political stage, he always couches his support for Harris with the condition that Republicans win the majority in the Senate–serving as an effective firewall, and forcing Harris to actually govern in the centrist way that she claims she is going to. And while that is likely to happen (barring a miracle comeback by Senator Jon Tester in Montana), I cannot base my vote on such a precarious outcome.
If somehow Democrats held on to the Senate on Tuesday, I could not have lived with myself knowing that I would have helped to put into power a gatekeeper that would open the door to increase government spending that led to the inflation seen in the past two years–along with an explosion in the federal debt, the elimination of internal combustion vehicles, forgiveness of debts that people willingly took on and who understood that it would have to be paid back, and the potential handcuffing of Israel as it makes serious headway in reducing the threat to its very existence by Iran and its various proxy groups.
In the vice presidential line I wrote in Mike Gallagher. While he disappointed me in not voting to impeach Trump after the January 6th riot, he too stepped away from the Republican party realizing that it’s direction now makes its future and a functioning democracy untenable. Mike also has a clear understanding of the threats posed by various enemies across the globe, especially China, Iran, and Russia. His experience in-field as an intelligence officer and and advisor to high-ranking officers would complement that of Adam Kinzinger and would restore ally confidence in US foreign policy.
As recently as 2015, a Kinzinger/Gallagher ticket would have been not only attainable but incredibly popular within the Republican party. Two well-spoken, accomplished, small government conservatives with histories of public service and a strong commitment to liberty and democracy. But the last nine years have left no room for either of them in the GOP, as the leaders of the party and the most-die hard primary voters demand only extremism and an appeal to base emotions and literal hatred for our fellow Americans.
Some of you would say “you just threw away your vote by writing in a candidate that isn’t even running.” To you I would say that truly throwing away your vote is casting it for someone you perceive as merely the “lesser of two evils” instead of someone that actually earned your vote and who encompasses the values and beliefs that you hold. Others would claim that by not voting for Harris that somehow counts as a “vote for Trump”. Those are obviously the people that came out of the 65% of school children over the last couple of decades that failed to reach proficiency in standardized math tests in school.
Regardless of what you think about my voting decision, I know that I will sleep well the next four years no matter what happens on Tuesday, or January 6th, or in the next four years–because I gave my support to someone who has not only sworn to uphold American ideals, but has also lived those ideals.
