Don is going to “No Vote” and Justin is going to hold his nose and color in the Whitehouse arrow. I admire them for their ideological courage and consistency and for their honest explanations of why they’re doing what they’re doing.
Immediately after the primary, I was resigned toward the “pragmatic” solution of holding my own nose and voting for Chafee.

I’m as idealistic as the next conservative, but also recognize that there is a time for idealism and a time for pragmatism. For two years, I’ve attempted to rebut the pragmatic reasons for supporting Senator Chafee in the primary–he’s more electable and he can vouchsafe a GOP controlled (and thus more conservative) U.S. Senate–by offering arguments rooted in conservative beliefs.
For me, the primary is the best time to argue over the ideas that should undergird a political party and in this primary I tried to convince Rhode Island Republicans the value of maintaining conservative ideals against practical politics. In the end, I was unsuccessful. It was a spirited debate, but ideas lost and pragmatism won. It’s disappointing, but now pragmatism will simply have to be enough.

That last “will” should have been a “may.” Two months later, and I’m not so sure. Yes, it’s a sad commentary on the choices, but how does a conservative weigh short term objectives versus hoped-for long term goals? After all, if Whitehouse does win, what are the chances he’ll ever be voted out in incumbent-loving li’l Rhody?
Or does it really just come down to punishing one whom you feel has served you poorly (Chafee) by either not voting for him (a swing of the electoral hammer) or the exponential act of voting for his opponent (a swing of the electoral sledgehammer)?
So what am I going to do? For the first time in my voting life, I actually don’t know who I’m voting for before election day. It could be a long night.

That is the slogan that will determine my vote tomorrow. Under the present circumstances, there could be no worse outcome than to reinforce Republicans’ belief that we must keep them in power regardless of their beliefs and behavior.
Frankly, I disagree with Orson Scott Card. “A chance” that Republicans will get the War on Terror right in the face of the palpable wrongness of Democrats is not good enough. Republicans must learn that the opposition’s absolute looniness does not amount to a get-into-office free card, and more importantly, Democrats must learn that trafficking in insanity is not acceptable among our nation’s leaders. To answer the first imperative, the Republicans must suffer electoral hardship. To answer the second, the Democrats must be given some responsibility — even with (perhaps especially with) the expectation that they will not live up to it.
The Rhode Island Senate race consists entirely of this choice: Either it is better that Lincoln Chafee wins, or it is better that he loses. As much as I sympathize with the poetic justice of a write-in vote, that route strikes me as passive negligence. Either Chafee should win, or he should lose. Standing aside and allowing your vote to be thrown in an “other” pile shirks the responsibility to make a decision. Chafee in, or Chafee out.
The Democrats could not have given us a better temporary repository of undeserved power on their side of the race.
There is really only one possible interpretation of Republican ballots that go toward Sheldon Whitehouse, and mine will be one.
Chafee out.