Republican Chicanery

(M)an: Dude! A week from tomorrow, four states will be having their primaries—Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington.

(D)ude: Man! So Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington have not had their primary elections yet and all are scheduled for Tuesday, August 5, 2014? Do voters have to choose a party affiliation before casting their ballots and is there still time for interested individuals wanting to vote in these primaries to be able to walk in to a polling place and register to vote on the same day as they cast their ballot?

M: Dude! As to the issue of primary elections in these four states, let’s begin with being an Independent in Kansas where Republican obstructionist Senator Pat Roberts is up for reelection this year and the American Press Corps is prematurely identifying Republican Tea Partier Milton Wolf as Roberts’s primary faceoff, when in actuality there are six additional kooks just like Pat Roberts and Milton Wolf listed on the rosters, with the exception of the lone intellectual Independent named Greg Orman.   

D: Man! Okay, as an unaffiliated Kansan voter, I have the rare opportunity to hold Pat Roberts accountable for voting against the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 that included the issue of human trafficking worldwide, the exact issue that the oppositional Congressional Republicans have now chosen to readdress and pass through the House of Representatives via the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2014?     

M: Dude! Yes. The Congressional Republicans are duplicate as well as duplicitous, aren’t they? But voters like US have the right to choose to participate in the Republican Primary and oust Senator Pat Roberts from the ballot on National Election Day November 4, 2014, a Tuesday. The Independent intellectual Greg Orman is deserving of the Republican Nomination for United States Senate.

D: Man! Who’s next? Ah, Michigan! Michigan’s got an open primary election system where unaffiliated voters need not identify with a specific party.  From what I’ve understood, voters are not required to identify with a party as long as they keep in mind that they may vote in only one party’s primary. Therefore, as a Michigan resident, I can vote in the Republican Primary and keep my political neutrality as an Independent but vote for the Democrats in the National Elections, Tuesday, November 4, 2014—if the candidates appeal to me, that is.

M: Dude! There are reasons similar to that of the case in Kansas to participate in the Republican Primary in Michigan as an Independent or unaffiliated voter.   

D: Man! I’ve got four reasons to vote in Michigan’s Republican Primary next week, August 5, 2014, and my reasons are the then-incoming Republican Tea GOP Classers from 2010’s devolution and era of errors like Congressmen Dan Benishek, Bill Huizenga, Justin Amash, and Tim Walberg. Actually, I think I can easily add a fifth reason, that being Kerry Bentivolio.    

M: Dude! Who are the better alternatives to the four 2010s and one 2013?

D: Man! Michigan’s District 1 Representative Dan Benishek’s challenger Ellis Boal is running as a Green Party candidate and, unlike Benishek, does respond to press inquiries, having provided thorough answers to the Detroit Free Press in 2012 when then-incumbent Dan Benishek won the congressional seat. Apparently, delineating political stances is not a priority for the Congressional Republicans, an overall disappointment for US as this is a symptom of the chronic reticence plaguing the Republican Tea GOP. However, the Green Party candidate in Michigan’s First District has concrete concerns he wants to address such as metallic sulfide mining that is endangering the Great Lakes that are a major source of freshwater for the world and tourism that brings in significant revenue for cities in the Upper Peninsula, while Benishek insists that global warming is quote unquote “baloney” and has shamelessly incited pro-gun militias against the Federal Government because, “We have the rights as citizens to be armed if we have a tyrannical government, so they cannot just make us do what they want” while being a National Rifle Association member with an 100% rating and an A rated  member of the Gun Owners of America.    

M: Dude! How about the four other reasons you listed as having influenced you to take part in the Republican Primary in Michigan as an unaffiliated or Independent?

D: Man! Representative of Michigan’s Second District Republican Bill Huizenga is up against a Rock-Goth enthusiast and supporter of Rand Paul and Ron Paul’s brand of Libertarianism, Kipp Welch II. Representative of Michigan’s Third District Republican Justin Amash is up against the Green Party of Michigan’s candidate Tonya Duncan who, like Ellis Boal in District 1, deserves a chance and clearly offers perspectives that are conducive to action beyond party lines, unlike Justin Amash’s Republican primary rival on the ballot Brian Robert Ellis who is offering severer partisanship in Washington, DC.      

M: Dude! And what about Tim Walberg and Kerry Bentivolio?

D: Man! Representative of Michigan’s Seventh District and Tea Party Caucus Republican Tim Walberg is up against Independent David Bernard Swartout who is an outspoken advocate and tech pioneer in the classroom as a teacher, administrator, and coach at a private high school in Jackson, Michigan for over four decades, but is ready to reinvigorate the American public school education system with those privileged innovative opportunities he was able to afford, like the incorporation of educational computers by Apple in the late seventies and eighties, at Lumen Christi Catholic High School.    

M: Dude! Wow! And what about Kerry Bentivolio?

D: Man! Representative of Michigan’s Eleventh District and Tea Party Express Republican Kerry Bentivolio was one of 144 Congressional Republicans who wanted the 2013 United States Government Shutdown, October first through the sixteenth, to continue indefinitely and which cost US ten billion dollars per week. His Republican rival David A. Trott has been endorsed by fellow “job creator” millionaire Mitt Romney. That’s how Trott self-identifies, as a quote unquote “job creator” and is reportedly tied to 23 energy companies, all of which I’m certain could not have been proponents of renewable and alternative fuels, but proponents of outdated coal-fired, natural gas-fired, and nuclear electricity sources.

M: Dude! So who’s left as a plausible alternative to both Bentivolio and Trott?

D: Man! There’s a Libertarian candidate running in the Michigan’s Eleventh District Republican Primary, an Army Veteran and retired teacher named John Tartar.

M: Dude! Returning to Kansas for a moment, the Kansan Secretary of State is Republican Kris Kobach and when the Republican Party felt threatened by unaffiliated and Independent voters after the record high voter turnout of unaffiliated Independents in the 2012 Election, Kobach issued the added hassle of voter registrants having to provide documentation proving United States citizenship. Kobach’s Republican rival for Secretary of State in the 2014 Kansas Primary is campaigning on this very issue of Kobach defrauding the electorate through such hassles like proving U.S. citizenship and not following through with registrations put on hold, 57% of which are from individuals identifying themselves as unaffiliated.

D: Man! Who is Kobach’s rival for Secretary of State in the Kansas Republican Primary again?

M: Dude! Scott Morgan is running as the Republican alternative to Kobach in next Tuesday’s Kansas Republican Primary, and has the endorsements of the major Kansas newspapers. Candidate Scott Morgan rejects Kobach’s extremism and is promising to keep his focus on the job unlike Kobach who has refused to release his tax returns that  would fully disclose his extracurricular financial activities outside of office.

D: Man! How can you make any selections from a bucket full of such rotten apples?

M: Dude! I’m exhausted!