Because of Trump, there’s no longer a middle ground, so I’m voting all Democrats for the first time in my life

Ahead of the 2014 election, I edited a political blog that interviewed and endorsed candidates across the political spectrum up and down Harris County’s gargantuan ballot. Our picks skewed to the left, but we made exceptions, and endorsed probably about 25 percent Republican.

“We look forward to her being one of the venerated voices of reason in her party,” Texpatriate wrote about state Rep. Sarah Davis when endorsing her over her Democratic opponent. “We certainly think that most of the other county officials, both Democrats and Republicans, would be wise to follow his lead,” we wrote of Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel in supporting him. And, “He shows an understanding and an empathy for the average person to an extent nearly unheard of in today’s crop of politician,” is what we had to say about Harris County Judge Ed Emmett in his endorsement.

This autumn, I will vote Democratic against all three. I will, for the first time in my life, vote straight Democratic after not just incessantly criticizing but ridiculing those who did the same in the past.

My rationale for splitting tickets was straightforward. They were good at their jobs, tried not to be divisive and parroted few of the extremist viewpoints. After all, I figured, as a moderate Democrat I would not want to be judged by the most extreme portions of my party. I conversed with myriad lawyers of different politics and practices, who often urged me to vote for specific incumbents.

Moderates like Judge Jay Karahan or conservatives like Judges Bill Burke or Don Smyth, who checked their partisanship at the courtroom door, were supported over Democrats on my ballot. (Karahan was defeated this spring in his primary, and now Burke and Smyth are retiring.)

Guilt by association is not an easy plunge. But at the end of the day, partisanship is not a race or religion. You are not born into one, and it is supposed to be a choice that reflects your values and morals.

In light of the Trump administration ripping screaming children away from their parents and putting them in cages or doing the bidding of Russia President Vladimir Putin, I can no longer abide in any way, shape or form. Anyone who chooses to run under the Republican banner is choosing to see everything going on — not only by the president, but his enablers and sycophants — and say “yes, that’s me, that’s who I am and with whom I want to associate.” And that is a bridge too far.

Not everything in the Republican platform is incompatible with decency, pragmatism or good heartedness, nor are its adherents on an individual level. Many continue to be good people who can compartmentalize better than me, or are misled. The grand cruelty is that the Democratic Party’s continued leftward plunge makes me uneasy too, and the races in which socialists are winning were often the ones in which I’d seek out a moderate Republican. But it would be the height of dishonest both-sides-ism to intimate this excused or compensated for a party that has become little more than a personality cult for a racist conman who may or may not be compromised by Russia.

There has to be a middle ground between nationalization of the steel mills and abiding the derision of the handicapped in public. Fortunately for the Democrats, that former example is still but a fringe complaint. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the latter example is central to their albatross.

In 2014, I lambasted straight-ticket voters as simpletons unable to scrutinize their ballots. So I’ll take my own advice. I won’t pull the lever, but will go down each and every place on the ballot. And for every race, I’ll consider any and all good the Republican may have done or might do in office. Then I will weigh against it all the bad the candidate’s opposing party has done to the United States and might still do in the future. It’ll be close in many cases, but I’ll know where I’ll end up. Every man must answer for all his decisions one day, and this is the only way I can.