I’m a writer, so it should be no surprise that my preferred means of communication is to put it in writing, especially for any really important information. You can’t edit a conversation. It’s easy to forget a crucial point to be made when the words are allowed to flow freely from our mouths.
When we speak, we might say too much, or not say enough. We might choose our words hastily and only create more confusion instead of clarifying a point. We might make the same mistakes in written form, but we have fewer excuses because the act of writing (and especially proofreading) gives us the best opportunity to organize our thoughts into concise and clear rhetoric that is coherent and persuasive.
By nature I’m a very verbal (and often verbose) person, and have little problems giving a speech or presenting arguments in formal debate when the situation calls for it, but I will painstakingly prepare and organize my thoughts even to the point of scripting the jokes, for one simple reason–my mouth often gets me into trouble. Even though I’m a Southerner and speak with a drawl, the words can come out of my mouth considerably faster than my filter’s capacity for screening them. The problem has never been getting me to speak, but my knowing when it’s time for me to shut up.
Like Clint Eastwood famously said in a scripted line for a movie, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
This brings me to attorney Lin Wood, who recently has been shown encouraging Georgia Republican voters to boycott the runoff elections unless David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler call for a special session of the Georgia legislature in support of Donald Trump. While Mr. Wood is an accomplished civil attorney who recently earned respect and admiration for negotiating settlements from a number of media organizations on behalf of Nicholas Sandmann but all due respect, that’s just crazy talk. Wood made the media pay for their careless use of words, so he ought to know better than to foolishly call for a boycott of a very important runoff election.
Should Loeffler and Perdue support the call for a special session? Sure, why not? The U.S. Constitution gives the power to choose the state’s electors; it wasn’t given to the Georgia Secretary of State, or to Brad Raffensperger personally. However, if the state legislators are convinced the election was free and fair, they should vote to send Joe Biden’s electors to the electoral college, even if that isn’t what I personally want, or what Lin Wood wants. If the legislature aren’t satisfied, the Georgia state legislature should either send Donald Trump’s electors or at minimum, call for another election. But under no circumstances should a vote in one election be contingent on the result of another.
Anyone who doesn’t exercise their right to vote has no right to complain about the government they get. No matter what happens with the White House and the electoral college, it should be very important to Republicans to minimize the power (and damage) of Nancy Pelosi by keeping Chuck Schumer from being in control of the Senate. We should all remember that the last time Democrats had control of both houses of Congress and the White House, the Affordable Care Act was rammed down our collective throats in a totally partisan vote that our spineless chief justice rewrote and allowed to become law, instead of ruling it unconstitutional.
Given that Republicans won virtually every contested House race to gain seats and achieved at minimum a plurality in the Senate, the will of the American people seems to be that Pelosi and Schumer should have as little power in Congress as possible, to limit the damage Biden might be able to do. It is logically imperative that Republicans support Perdue and Loeffler no matter what happens with the presidency.
Therefore, it is a very stupid suggestion to Georgia Republicans that they should boycott a crucial election by having an adult version of a voter temper tantrum. It’s an emotional, not a logical argument. Lin Wood is an extremely smart man and a brilliant lawyer, but that was a very stupid thing to say.
In a situation like this, my mother always had some good old-fashioned Southern wisdom to impart and she would say, “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.” Yes, it’s true that a Joe Biden presidency is an awful future for a Trump supporter to contemplate.
But you know what’s worse for conservatives? Congress being run by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, working with a Biden White House on the Democrat agenda.
That’s a nightmarish scenario.
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