I decided how I will vote for Senate this year. I will vote for a working government.
Several days ago I wrote about my Senate choices and was still undecided. I didn’t particularly like my choices.
Senator Toomey (R-PA) was a known. He has a record in the Senate and mostly I disagree with him but I agree on at least one issue.
Katie McGinty was a unknown. She has not previously held office, at least not one that I was familiar with. But I watched her debate the Senator and read a few things and decided to vote for her. I think she will make the better Senator. A major factor in my decision that Katie McGinty is not a Republican.
I disagreed strongly with Senator Mitch McConnell’s decision not to hold hearings to fill the Supreme Court vacancy during President Obama’s last year in office. I think he was hoping there would be a Republican president after Obama, allowing the Republicans to fill that vacancy.
But now that it looks like the next President may be a Democrat, will the Senate Majority Leader allow hearings? Now that several Republican senators have stated they will not allow Hillary Clinton to fill the vacancy, will the Senate Majority Leader agree? Will Mitch McConnell continue as Senate Majority Leader?
To their credit, neither Senator Toomey nor Senator McConnell has voiced support for this idea of not filling the Supreme Court vacancy. They have not spoken either way that I know of. But this is something a Republican majority may well do.
If you are concerned about this Supreme Court issue you may be interested in the following articles:
- http://www.npr.org/2016/11/03/500560120/senate-republicans-could-block-potential-clinton-supreme-court-nominees
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/19/john-mccain-is-right-senate-republicans-could-block-a-clinton-supreme-court-indefinitely/
- http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/rick-hasen-supremely-important-choice-article-1.2858853
A wider issue would be that a Democratic congress would likely work much better with a Democratic president. A Republican congress will just be obstructionist as we have seen for the last few years. On the other hand if you are a Republican maybe you want a Republican congress because you think obstruction would be preferable to enactment of Democratic ideas.
So in your decisions for voting, you may want to consider the working government factor.