Suicide Voters And Extremists

Now there's a provocative image, from Charles Hurt in the New York Post (emphasis mine):

The depressing GOP field that has paved a path to victory for McCain also gave surprising wins last night to Huckabee in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as in his home state of Arkansas.

Still, McCain has so radicalized key conservatives that some have vowed to turn themselves into suicide voters next November by pulling the lever for Hillary Rodham Clinton over him.

It resonates because some conservatives don't want their ideology tainted with the mess that the expect will ensue if John McCain takes the nomination. Better to protect conservatism at the expense of the country - even if it means lefty judicial picks, federal expansion, and the Bill Clinton bathtub ring that will need to be scrubbed off the preidency all over again.

While others might be ignorantly going about their business in the marketplace of democracy, these folks are willing to strap themselves with explosives in the name of the cause. And if you listen to hard Right pundits, there an eerie resemblance to the tapes we sometimes see from TV Al Qaeda. It's hallmark is an intense animosity to the moderates and compromisers that are seen to have sold out the One True Ideology. The objective is never consensus, but instead unqualified defeat, or nothing.

This analogy only goes so far - but if you truly believe voting is a meaningful, definitive civic act, where we are obligated as patriots to act in the best interests of our country, then we shouldn't be playing games.