David and the RINO: How To Stop A RINO With A Single Shot – David Stringer, Publisher

Readers will recognize today’s cartoon video as a parable for our time, inspired by the familiar story from the Hebrew Bible, David and Goliath, 1 Samuel 17. In our updated version, Goliath is a swamp creature, Kwong the RINO, who has claimed asylum in Rinoland. He mocks our hero, David, with the claim that his status makes him untouchable. But in Kwong The Rino’s hubris, David sees an opportunity. With a smooth stone and a sling, he slays the Rino with a single shot.

Parables have a magical way of drawing us in because they convey meaning on multiple levels. They engage our minds in the search for a moral truth hidden in the story. Given the political season, today’s parable of David and the Rino, leads me to consider the problem of Rinos in the Republican party. In today’s cartoon video, Kwong The Rino is presented as a creature of the swamp, a denizen of  Rinoland, refuge of the Anti-Trump, Pro-Immigrant, America Last wing of the Republican Party.

If you don’t think there are such creatures, just ask LD1 State Senator Mark  Finchem. This term he saw 13 of his bills that passed the State Senate with Republican majorities, only to be killed by a vindictive Republican colleague in the House of Representatives.

When I was first elected to the legislature in 2016, after a hard fought, upset result in the Republican primary, I was told to stop worrying because 85% of incumbents are re-elected. Given those odds, how do we get rid of an incumbent who turns out to be a Rino? The parable of our cartoon video points the way. David slays Kwong The Rino with a single shot. In elections, the single shot approach, also known as bullet voting, allows a voter to increase the impact of their vote by under voting. It works when there are multiple candidates for more than one position. For example, it often happens in city council and school board elections, that there are multiple candidates to fill multiple seats. Voting only for the candidate you prefer and not the others makes it easier for that candidate to win.

In the upcoming Republican primary for LD1,  voters will select two candidates who will progress to the general election in November. But there is no requirement that voters have to vote to cast both votes.    If they have a particular candidate they favor, or a candidate they disfavor, they can cast just one vote for the candidate they prefer. In the case of the LD1 House of  Representatives, this has the effect of increasing the impact of the vote cast. The preferred candidate’s vote goes up by one, while the total pool of available votes is decreased. This gives the voter’s preferred candidate an extra boost.

The impact of single-shotting on even a modest scale can have an outsize effect on an election. It is the most effective way of boosting the prospects of a newcomer or ousting an entrenched incumbent who has drifted into Rinoland. If you are concerned about the current dysfunction in the LD1 delegation, now is the time to consider single-shotting your preferred candidate.

Let us know what you think of the cartoon.