I’m feeling less alone!

So yesterday, on Facebook, I’m having the Usual Discussion with people who tell me that if I fail to vote for whatever the GOP burps up as a candidate, I’m *really* voting for Obama, while I’m busy explaining that, when I choose chocolate ice cream, I’m not “really” choosing vanilla or strawberry.

I then casually remark (to somebody laboring under the delusion that somebody like Santorum is going to be nominated) that the GOP will likely pick some Dole-esque cipher like Romney, which will be a fitting doom for all those who keep urging everybody to ignore their consciences, shut up and Support the Party. At which point, I’m suddenly told that, should that happen, they’d write somebody in!

Then, I turn to the Register and discover that Pat Archibold is wondering if he can be pro-life and Republican! Of course, some readers are continuing the habit of “Vote GOP or the baby gets it!” thinking. But Pat’s got a point. When being “pro-life” means voting for Scott Brown, then the pro-life movement has been so thoroughly co-opted as to be meaningless.

Typically, at this point, I’m told that I’m being a “purist” because I won’t vote for a candidate who endorses grave and intrinsic evil. I always wonder what such people think that term means. Saying no to grave intrinsic evil is not “purism”. It’s basic minimalist human decency–like going to a restaurant and settling for a gut bomb burger made mostly of gristle and fat but drawing the line at a meal made of human flesh. Those who urge me to go ahead and eat the prolife pizza bedecked with human flesh pepperoni on the grounds that it’s better than a big fat slab of human flesh sirloin steak don’t move me with their accusations of sniffy “purism”. I prefer no human flesh at all, thank you. And so I will not vote for a GOPer who endorses torture (as, for instance, Cain, Pawlenty, and Santorum) do, any more than I will vote for Obama. Those who tell me that to do so is not “pro-life” simply don’t grasp what “pro-life” means, and instead labor under the illusion that opposition to abortion taketh away the sins of the world. I will never back down on my opposition to abortion, but neither will I let that opposition be used as a cover for approving other sins the Church warns are worthy of the fires of hell. I will not eat human flesh steak *or* human flesh pepperoni on a pro-life pizza.