Have you ever voted for a Republican?

I voted for the first time in the 1972 election. I voted for George McGovern. I have voted for a Republican only once in my lifetime, for any office. That was in 1976, when I voted for John Danforth the first time he ran for the U.S. Senate. (I voted for his Democratic challenger the two times he ran for re-election.)

John Danforth is a good man. I wish there were more Republicans like him, but the orange con man's cult has run all the relatively decent and sane Republicans out of the Republican Party.

In 1976, I voted for Danforth mainly by default. That was the year when Jerry Litton was killed in a plane crash on the night he won the primary to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. (Why do these plane crashes and assassinations always seem to happen to Democrats?) Jerry Litton was a rising star in the Democratic Party, and I think he would have been president by now. The Democrats had to come up with another candidate in a big hurry, and they settled on former governor Warren Hearnes, who was not very popular in this state then.

As I said, I voted for John Danforth essentially by default. I have never voted for a Republican since then, and never will, for any office.

One thing I do worry about, though, is small local offices like school board and county commissioner and city council. I want to be sure I'm not voting for any right-wingers, but sometimes it's really hard to tell. A local newspaper runs candidate profiles in the few days before an election and you can sometimes glean hints from those about the candidates' ideological leanings. Also, driving around town and looking at yard signs, if a yard has signs supporting Democratic candidates for the big offices, their yard signs for the small local offices can also give you a hint. Still, there always are a few offices I'm not sure how I should vote on. I suppose there is a chance I might have voted for a right-winger without intending to, but I hope that has never happened.

One thing I just decided to add on edit: I never let advertisements on TV or radio or newspapers or billboards or mailings have an effect on my voting decisions. Ads are the absolute worst way to guide your voting decisions.

-- Ron