The Hegar-Cornyn Race: Is There a Plan C?
If the only qualifications one needs to be elected to national office is being ex-military and a mother of two, we must have thousands of potential Senators in Texas alone. But of course, I would be remiss to not mention MJ Hegar’s grassroots “radical” initiative to enact political change and lambast “self-serving politicians” along the way. Naturally, nothing is more politically radical and disrupting than a steady 12 to 13 percent chance of winning against Republican incumbent John Cornyn according to FiveThirtyEight and a steady popular vote deficit hovering at about 8 percent according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.
If the only qualification for Senatorship is qualification in itself, the only clear choice for Senator is that of a despotic partisan legislator more concerned with self-gratification than the future of his constituents. Why, nothing inspires voters more than a Congressional record easily traced by a party line: a climate change denier (more specifically, that of the anthropogenic variety), complacent with the unprecedented, and, in Ginsburg’s own words, undesired Supreme Court filing, and quibbling with a strong COVID-19 response.
The debate between these two, supposedly esteemed, candidates is just as unremarkable as it was on paper—little clash, lots of talking points thrown about haphazardly. In her attempt to be new-aged and innovative, Hegar attempted to speak to and resonate with the common folk, with an informal and no-nonsense way of speaking. The effect: she left the stage looking unassertive and had little to no responses or comebacks during her hour-long and poorly-executed “Every Man A King” rendition that would leave an undecided voter ecstatic at the thought of voting for MJ. Cornyn, who, although with a bit more oratory tact, delivered the same old stern-faced rhetoric about the good-hearted working Texan and those who oppose these civilian heroes—spooks such as “radicals,” “extremists,” “socialists,” and “leftists.”
So in a race in which voters are burdened with a scheming, two-faced politician whose views are borderline punditry or an inexperienced motorcycle-riding war vet whose views are supplemented by an exorbitant usage of “y’all”s and “guys,” how does one vote? Which name does one box in? Well certainly, one could flip a coin and act upon the results, but why limit one’s self to just two candidates? Why not write in Beto O’Rourke or Royce West? Granted, neither vote would count (since one has to register as a write-in candidate in Texas), but neither would a vote for Hegar or Cornyn, as both would yield unsatisfactory results in Congress. When no candidate will properly represent Texans, there is no greater civic duty than not participating in a race that is muddled and obsolete.
Loading ...
Jack Dougherty is a senior at Keystone who enjoys participating in Model UN and Academic Worldquest and has lately found himself in the midst of helping...