You Refuse to Debate, You Lose My Vote. Period.

As any regular reader could tell you, I'm a big fan of John Bonifaz. When he ran for Secretary of State, I was at first very skeptical. He seemed like a one issue candidate running for an office that didn't have the type of control over the issue required to fix it. Then he contacted me and reached out, just as Secretary of State Bill Galvin showed his true colors. When Galvin made it apparent that he wouldn't debate Bonifaz (who, in all likelihood, would have destroyed Galvin - even if the press would have ignored it), it solidified my support of Bonifaz. I interviewed him and went from basically voting for him as a vote against Galvin to voting for him because he was such an amazing, passionate and brilliant person. He would have been an amazing Secretary of State, period. However, he lost. It was my greatest regret after the primary.

That said, I was going to support Galvin after the primary. I'm a true blue voter and sometimes that means going with an incumbent I don't like - or does it? The Green Party has done one thing after another on the national scene that has royally ticked me off, but here we come to a personal conundrum:

Bill Galvin, again, has refused to debate his opponents. Where is his class? Where is his respect for Democracy? Deval Patrick has debated all of his opponents time after time after time. Despite the fact Deval's debated his opponents at least a half dozen times during this election, he agreed to do one more in Dartmouth. He could have refused and NO ONE would have thought less of him for it. He's up in the polls, gave proper respect to the Democratic system... and is yet giving it more.

How can I vote for Bill Galvin if he can't even show up for a debate once? The answer: I can't.

I pulled the Jill Stein lever - something I thought I'd never do. She could have been Alan Keyes and I probably would have voted for her. Simply put, I'll never - ever - vote for a candidate who has refused debate after debate after debate after debate. I can't vote for a candidate who clearly detests Democracy - who sees our government's procedures as an inconvenience. I won't do it now and I won't do it ever.