Elections – Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

The death of the RNC

August 22, 2025

NPR release Oct. 27, 2237

Research has shown that November 5, 2024, was the last election where any of those elected were members of the Republican Party. Historians for the last few years have tried to find the reasons for this over one-hundred-year-old organization simply falling away like the Whigs, Torreys, and others.

The electorate seems to have been disillusioned by almost all the federal, state, and local candidates. No Republican could gain any office in the next election. The democratic, libertarian, green, and constitutional parties and non-partisan candidates defeated every incumbent. Two years later, no candidate was declared a member of this party.

That could never happen? Ask those who have researched these other parties that died off in the last two hundred years. Did they think that it could happen to them? I do not think so.

Think about why you do not vote for a particular person. If they are not a Republican, they do not receive your vote. Maybe it is the Democrats that you vote for. Or do you decide against anyone in these groups? My Dad said he would never choose a Catholic in 1960. John F. Kennedy was nominated, and he said he would write in Old Yeller Dog. He refused to vote for a Republican.

Kennedy won. He never admitted he voted for him until after the assassination. I heard him tell my mother that he could not believe anyone would kill the man he had voted for.

I am not like my parents. I refuse to vote for anyone for one reason only. I cannot vote for anyone that supports national candidates that should not even be on the ballot. I did not vote for either major candidate in 2016. I believe the republicans nominated Hillary Clinton and the Democrats chose Donald Trump. In 2024, Missouri republicans chose their candidate by a caucus. They are responsible for Trump being on the ballot.

From the first day he was inaugurated, Trump has been violating his oath of office. He declared he would uphold the Constitution of the United States. He has had executive orders overturned or questioned on constitutional grounds.

He has now taken over the District of Columbia police department, even though statistics show that crime is down this year. These are steps to be prepared for Martial Law being declared in 2029 when he is required to vacate the office. His attempt to ignore the Twenty-Second Amendment had failed.

I have never been a partisan voter. I am hard core non-partisan and believe that the only way to solve most of the problems in our election process is to change our nomination process for every elected position. During a national primary, the top three candidates should be placed on the general election ballot. Parties would not even be listed.

My Republican and Democratic friends said they had to give their backing to their candidate. I hope they do not do this again. My votes for all candidates will be based on who is the best qualified for the position. I will vote for very few on the two major party tickets. I hope you will join me.

Judges versus voters

July 16, 2025

As I sit and listen to the words being delivered at a high school speech and debate tournament, my mind wanders momentarily. I am a judge. My mind should not wander. I am here to listen to what these students have trained long and hard to express.

Being a high school speech judge is much like being a voter. You must prove your qualifications to have the right to vote, which are similar to the qualifications for determining who is the best speaker.

You must be breathing. Non-breathers will scare both the politicians and the debaters. While many politicians may have been elected by people who are no longer alive, the actual ballot had to be marked by someone alive at that moment. If you don’t breathe, you cannot write, and to mark an election or a speech ballot, legible symbols are needed. The scratches may not resemble words, but they must be discernible by those people or machines whose job it is to determine and announce the decision.

You must be present. At least in body. Your mind and spirit may be elsewhere, but spirits and minds are not recognized by the officials who give you your ballot(s). They identify and count bodies as historians after a battle or skirmish.

You must prove you exist. The accepted method at a speech tournament is to be present. At an election, identification is needed. In Missouri, a photo ID is now required. This does not prove who you are, but allows the election judges to record that a certain person has already voted and will not be allowed to vote again.

You cannot discuss how you vote with others in the polling place. Judges cannot discuss between themselves after speakers and rounds, how they marked their ballots either. Secrecy in both cases can be broken after the event, if they desire to. I have written about speakers and other things I experienced at these tournaments over the years.

One of my favorite events was extemporaneous speaking. For the non-speakers that are reading this, in this event, you choose a topic fifteen minutes before your time to speak. You have magazines and other resources with you on possible topics. I also kept quotations or poems that could serve as introductions or conclusions.

Today, when I speak in churches or before other groups, I use these techniques. Thinking on my feet and expressing alternative opinions gives me an open mind and helps me make quick decisions. This has served me well in business as a manager, salesman, purchasing agent, and employee.

When you must make decisions, I hope you have these types of abilities, no matter how you learned it. Sports and other types of extracurricular activities can teach many things that are needed for a successful life. Often, we gain these skills by experiencing only when we need them. I’m glad I did not do that.

America is still great

October 25, 2022

For all of you Nay Sayers, America is still great. The Donald said that he would make America great again. His negativity convinced many of you that the Demicans had caused our country not to be great. As usual, he lied.

The President and the Congress cannot change what makes the USA great. Our people and Constitution make us different from other nations. Trump wanted to make America his. That is why he wanted to overthrow the legally elected president. He is a spoiled baby. Wake up Trumpicans or all the Demicans will win in November.

When the original thirteen colonies joined together to revolt against the British, they did not want only the freedoms that Great Britain gave their subjects. The rights that were denied by the English were the ones the Colonists wanted. They risked their lives to move to this continent to distance themselves and their families from tyranny.

They pledged their fortunes and lives to gain what they wanted. You may call yourself an American. What have you given to making this country great? If you were in the military, your service is not ended. If like me, you did not join any of the military branches, what can our job be?

First, lose the negative attitude and speech. Stop talking bad about our government. I recognize that many of our administrators, lawmakers, and judges are just professional bureaucrats. They only want to be re-elected or support the one who will keep them in their jobs.

There are some who are trying their best for the rest of us. Many are self-serving or like us, they work for a living and have no ambition beyond making more money. We need to use the means that we as citizens have to unseat these ineffective ‘servants of the people.’

Our government is “of the people, by the people and for the people” according to President Lincoln in his address at Gettysburg. “We the people” are the ones who vote. We can and should remove these Nay Sayers and anarchists from the paid employees’ ranks.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JM0_0pfm2_c

An anarchist is a person who actively attempts to overthrow an established rule in exchange for a lack of control. Many Trump supporters failed to think it through in January of 2021. Stopping the process of accepting the results of the 2020 election would not have kept the defeated incumbent in office. His staff knew this and tried to get him to understand what he was trying to do to our nation.

When you go to the polls in November, remember what these Trumpites wanted to accomplish. Remove them from every office and replace them with Americans. Not Republicans or Democrats. I’ll be there. I hope you will be as well.

Reason or Excuse

October 8, 2022

As I have said before, I am a word guy. A reason is the cause, explanation, or justification for an effect, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The word justification can be a synonym for an excuse. By that dictionary, a reason and an excuse can be the same thing.

The Britannica dictionary states that it is a statement of fact that explains why something is the way it is. Fuel prices have increased substantially in the last year. When we are told that it is the war between Russia and Ukraine or the fact that some of the refineries reduced production due to the pandemic or because of the higher cost of crude oil these are excuses.

The reason why prices increase is the old problem of supply and demand. In this case, the supply is controlled by the oil companies. Demand was reduced when we all stayed home. It increased because we wanted to go on trips and vacations after being stuck in our homes for months.

The reason we are seeing a small drop is that the suppliers want us to continue to vote for their candidates in November. Remember when you go to the polls that usually the oil companies contribute to both the Republican and Democratic parties and candidates.

If you want someone, not in their pockets, look for non-partisan, independent, or third-party candidates. Be sure to check their contribution records before the election. Failing to support people who have not sold their soles to the oil companies will get us nowhere again this year.

Do not believe those who criticize the other candidate because they claim they have sold out. They are all bought and sold by many different groups. It takes a lot of money to buy the advertising and make trips to encourage voters.

Missouri has a senator that is not up for re-election this term. He had run for another position and was elected. One of his promises was that he was not a professional politician like some of his opponents. A few months later he filed to run for the Senate position he now holds.

I voted for him the first time. I did not vote for him as a Senator. I will never vote for him again for anything. He is a professional candidate and will someday run for President. We need to put a stop to the long-term Congressmen and Senators.

We need term limits of eight years for Congress and two terms for the Senate. This is what the US President is limited to. Republicans pushed this through with the democrats’ help after President Franklin Roosevelt died in office after his fourth inauguration.

There is a reason why we need to do this. We must cut the pensions and health coverage off for all former elected officials. It is almost impossible to unseat an incumbent. The excuse for not doing it is different for each office holder. Some claim their experience is invaluable. Others report that no one else will support these bills and that is why they are never proposed.

A third excuse is that the states must propose a new amendment to the US Constitution. This is the only way to put term limits into place. Our country has been taken hostage by two political parties.

The excuse for voting for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was that they were the nominees for the two major parties. The reason Trump won was that those who are not Republicrats or Demicans thought he might be better than Mrs. Clinton. Two years ago, the voters decided they had all The Donald that they wanted. That is why Biden won the election.

My hope is that we will refuse to vote for those who have been part of our problems. Once again, I am calling for those of you who are not Demicans or Republicrats to vote for other candidates. It has been over a hundred years since we had a new party upset an established one.

The Republicans are the youngest of these two. It is time to unseat both groups. Join me at the polls on November fifth and let’s make America and Missouri great again.

Vote!

September 24, 2022

November 5, 2022, is election day. We are not interested in the party line. We want a decent human beings that will vote the way we think they should.

Personally, I do not want anyone who still believes that Donald Trump was a good choice for this country. He is still only interested in himself. I will not vote for anyone that believes his endorsement is a positive attribute for them.

I also do not want anyone who thinks that talking badly about their opponents or candidates from another group is a wise thing to do. These two perspectives reduce my options a lot. I also need to know what you mean. Acronyms and abbreviations used by your ads leave me confused.

I do not know the political language and do not care about who supports you. Everyone that may believe you are a good choice means nothing to me. What conservative, liberal, outsider, CRT, woke, or any of your other bywords mean, varies with the person who uses them.

If you want me to vote for you or your candidate, I need specifics about what you or they have done and will do if voted into office. How do you stand on the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision? I know you all have recognized that our economy is in trouble. Don’t blame someone else for that.

Your solution to this problem is what I need to hear. You cannot lower gas prices. Do not tell me that you will solve this problem. Washington is not the trouble. The people in Congress, the Senate, or other elected offices may or may not be doing their jobs correctly. My opinion and yours may be different.

Tell me what your plan is. How will you vote? I need to know that you will work with anyone else that you must. I was in business for over forty years. I had to change my approach depending on who I worked with. I want you to keep your position working to solve problems. Shutting down the government is never an acceptable result.

We want you to work for us and with each other. We will vote. When you lie to us, you will never get our vote again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

November is Coming

August 28, 2022

This column is written for all of us who will go to the polls for the election. It does not matter which party you belong to. I hope that when you select a candidate you consider the person. I am not interested in the party line. We want decent human beings who will vote how we think they should.

I do not know the political language and do not care about who supports you. Everyone that may believe you are an excellent choice means nothing to me. What conservative, liberal, outsider, CRT, woke, or any of your other bywords may vary with the person who uses them.

If you want me to vote for you, I need specifics about what you have done and will do if you are voted into office. How do you stand on the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision? I know you all have recognized that our economy is in trouble. Don’t blame someone else for that.

We want you to work for us and with each other. We will vote in November. When you lie to us, you will never get our vote again. The voter’s slogan should be, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Walk With a Servant