I’ve heard it said too many times that voting for anyone other than a Republican or Democrat is a “wasted vote”. I cannot tell you how frustrating an idea I find that to be. I’ve heard all the reasons; a third-party candidate can’t win so why vote for them or if you don’t vote the lesser of two evils, the greater evil might win. Seriously people? Is this what it’s come to? Voting based not on preference but on popularity, like some high school contest? I think it was Jesse Ventura that said voting is not a horse race. We’re not betting on who we think will win. We’re telling others who best represents our views.
So for those that are curious, here are all the reasons I’ll be “wasting my vote” this year:
1. Voting for a candidate other than the best representative of your views has the exact opposite effect. Since the candidate already knows that your vote is in hand, he can then concentrate on moving the platform AWAY from your wishes, in order to court the votes of people with beliefs far from your own.
Many people who like Libertarian ideas always vote for Republicans. What does the party do to reward them? They make policies to win over moderate liberals. Similarly, many people who prefer Green Party ideas always vote for Democrats, and so the Democrats ignore them and make policies to win over moderate conservatives. Either way, the voters get the opposite of what they wanted, as the Democrats and Republicans both move toward the political center. Even Democrats and Republicans are getting screwed as their party plays politics as usual, instead of standing up for their ideals.
2. If the greater of two evils was to win it wouldn’t be my fault, because I didn’t vote for him. Nor would it be my fault that I didn’t vote for the lesser of two evils. The fault lies in the hands of anyone voting based either on popularity or fear, rather than policies, issues and ideals. Keep in mind that voting is suppose to be FOR something, not AGAINST something.
You personally have only one vote. Like it or not, you are powerless to turn the results of a democratic election. This being the case, your one vote counts for something only in the sense that it represents your approval of some set of principles. Voting is a means of conveying information about what you believe. If you ignore your principles then this information is lost, and your vote really is wasted.
3. I do not wish to take part in the status-quo. I believe in real change, not just change of hands. And real change will never come by supporting that which we do not agree with out of fear of who might win if we don’t. I think we’re on a slippery slope to fascism and both parties are to blame. My supporting the status-quo with my vote sends the message that I will tolerate what they are doing. (Click here to watch the documentary, America: Freedom to Fascism to fully understand my view.)
4. My vote may be extremely unlikely to affect the outcome of the election. But it can influence policy. A vote for one of the two main candidates will be lost in the mass of voters, while a vote for a minor candidate, especially if he gets enough to make the margin of difference between the other two, will have far more influence. It will impel the other two parties to appeal to the voters for that minor candidate, and that may come to be as important if not more important than their main positions. So my vote can be a drop in the ocean or a splash in the pool. I’ll go for the one that gets more attention.
5. Voting for the lesser of two evils, still results in evil in the White House and I refuse to take any part in that.
6. On a more personal note, Both McCain and Obama support this ridiculous “bailout” plan. I don’t find the solution to all our problems to be in the form of more government. And you don’t save a sinking ship by adding more water to the hull. Big Government got us into this mess, Bigger Government won’t get us out. Neither of the major candidates seem to understand this fully, therefore they do not share my utmost ideals. See #1.
So there ya have it. All my thought and research laid out for you. Call it a wasted vote or call it a protest vote. Either way I plan to send a message by supporting my third-party candidate this year. Whoever you choose to vote for, I simply hope it’s a vote for the right reasons and someone who best represents your views.
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
Tara, that’s an excellent statement of your positions. You make lots and lots of sense.
I do disagree on one point–Phill Gramm et al.’s deregulation of the banking industry, and the banks themselves, with just a little bit of fault going to credit-crazed Americans, got us into this mess. Not exactly big government.
But Big Government is going to be the problem if they bailout the bankers at the expense of the taxpayers–AGAIN! Socialism at least distributes the goods and services to the people but Fascism distributes it all to the wealthy alone. That’s exactly what’s going on here now. Makes me sick!
I don’t know, I’m still thinking on whether I’m choosing Obama or a 3rd party candidate. I could go either Libertarian or Green, funny. But I’m going to wait and see on Obama yet, how he handles this bailout issue, because I’d really like to like him! Silly, maybe.
Lisa
Lisa, I certainly see what you mean; big gov isn’t only to blame. But if the Clinton admin hadn’t meddled in the market, would we have had another catalyst behind the catastrophe?
I realized I forgot a link up there in the statement “Big gov got us into this mess…”. It explains it a bit better (although seemingly partisan, which I’m not) than I could.
Here’s the link but I’ll ad it above too: http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=306370789279709
I’d like to like Obama too. But then that scares me. I tend to not trust people who are too charismatic, if you know what I mean. LOL But in the end I still see too many ulterior motives. If you get a chance, watch that Freedom to Fascism movie. It’s very eye-opening. Very good.
I’m focusing more on Congress right now though. If we can get the right people in Congress, we can solve this damn problem. Everyone wants to blame Bush but have we forgotten that Congress has the power to stop the war, repeal the Patriot Act, etc? Why aren’t they??
New to your blog and enjoyed this post.
Agree with your comment about Congress. They seem to get off the hook by mentioning Bush and his doctrine often. Why aren’t they? is a great question!
Thank you so much for this post. I have been agonizing over my “choices” this election. I too am not won over by charisma and not represented by dems or reps. The one thing I am struggling with on voting for Bob Barr is his stance on abortion. He states on his website that he will use the office of President as a bully pulpit to outlaw abortion. I liked Ron Paul’s stand that it was a state issue that the federal government should stay out of. I looked at he Libertarian party stance and I can get behind that. It seems to me that the Libertarian party believes that we as people have both the capacity and the desire to govern our own lives. Isn’t that what we as unschoolers believe? I think voting my conscience will put me at ease no matter who wins the election.
Thanks Again- you have really helped me to be firm in my voting stance.
Melissia
Melissia, can you show me where you saw this on his site? As far as I’ve been able to find his stance is the same as RP on the matter – that federal government does not have the right to make laws and that only states have the power to decide this issue. Also, if I’m not mistaken the only power he has is to overturn Roe v Wade (which would cause it to go to a state vote), but not make abortion itself illegal. Overall though, I think if there is only one issue on which you don’t agree with a candidate, you’re doing good!
Yes, I believe unschooling and Libertarianism are the most compatible views out there. They are both the radical idea that we don’t own anyone else and that given freedom, people/children make good decisions.
Tara,
I have been trying to find where I read it too. I thought I followed a link on FactCheck but looking there I cannot see what I would have followed. Apparently, I need to be more careful about how I get my information.
Melissia
Although I agree with your principal, in our system of electoral college it does equal a “wasted” vote. The reason we had Clinton in office is because many Republicans voted for Ross Perot. Off the top of my head, Clinton had about 45% of the votes, Perot 20 %..which left Bush w 35%. The point is Clinton won with well less than 50%. And most of Perot’s votes came from Republicans.
I really believe that in our system you are not only voting FOR someone, but also against someone. You have to ask yourself, knowing that this will be a close race, are you comfortable with “the other guy” winning? Remember there are Supreme Court seats coming soon….there are 4 judges coming close to retirement age This can change our country for a generation or more. And not only are we talking about a Democrat who is far left, he most likely will have a Democratic house and senate. Anything he wants passed will happen with ease.
Honestly, I think the way to get that third party candidate is to start closer to home. The more Libertarians in State Office, the more there will be in National office, eventually. I know it will take time, but it can happen.
In the mean time, I do think we have to consider the bigger picture. You know I’m not a fan of McCain, but at least I know where he stands! And I do respect the man.
JMHO….I respect you final choice!
Pam, I don’t think you understand. In our system of the electoral college, every vote is wasted except that which makes a statement. We’re not voting for anything but our own egos. If voting actually made a difference, they’d make it illegal.
And just cuz Hitler was in charge doesn’t mean we played along with his tyranny. I’d rather give the middle finger to “the system” than to continue to play its game. I’m not a pawn to my fear or their tactics.
By voting “against” someone you’re telling the other person you agree with them. Do you really agree with McCain? A few months ago you hated the man and said if he got the nomination, you’d support RP as a third-party candidate. Do you really know where McCain stands? I do. Right along with the other fascists who support martial law, the (anti)Patriot Act, the bailout plan. I have no respect for that.
I think you think that because I liked Ron Paul, I tend to side with the Republicans. I don’t. The “other guys” to me are both the Democrats and the Republicans. Obama and the Dems are not the only enemies. McBush and their cronies are playing the same game, just with different strategies. I’m not comfortable with EITHER ONE winning.
I do agree that more good politicians on the local level is the most important focus and it’s certainly getting its due attention. But to support corruption because it’s the only option given to the sheeple by the shepard doesn’t work for me. And I’m going to protest with my vote.
Tara,
I found your web site while searching for responses to some relatives who have expressed the idea that my decision to vote for RP is wasting my vote.
I want to commend you for articulating the libertarian point of view so eloquently and logically and with so much good spirit!
When I wasn’t so young as I am now – I’m 69 years young now but I was only about 35 years young then – I was a Marxist wannabe, by which I mean I hung out with folks who read Marx and Mao like a Baptist preacher reads the Bible – they were as doctrinaire and dogmatic as one can imagine – and I absorbed so much from them that I was commended for being so politically correct!
But I woke up one day – quite literally – to the realization of just how full of BS I was and they were. I went neutral/numb for a year or two and happened to tune into the libertarian Presidential nominating proceedings on cable one day and started to learn about anti-Marxism, i.e. liberty and libertarianism.
I very much agree with your sentiments about voting for what one believes in and supporting the person who represents my views, not just the lesser of two evils, neither one of which comes anywhere close to representing me.
A modern colloquialism has it that a thumb-nail definition of a neurotic personality is someone whose actions remain the same but who keeps expecting different outcomes.
A logical corollary of that proposition is that if we keep voting for DemoPublicans and RepubliCrats we’ll keep getting more and more government and more and more oppression. I really think not voting at all would be more intelligent than voting for McCain or Obama; just think what message THAT would send!
Does it take one to know one? If so, I believe my past flirtations with Marx and his disciples might qualify me to know a Marxist when I see one and Obama sure does strike me as a Marxist.
Although McCain isn’t of the same ilk – he’s not the dogmatic, doctrinaire Marxist as I suspect Obama secretly is – I believe McCain to be a BGR – Big Government Republican, and I won’t vote for either of those.
I watched Barr and Root speak on CSPAN and I enjoyed both their speaches and I could vote for them but ruminating upon the matter, I decided that no one really represents my views more and no one deserves my support more than Ron Paul and I would genuinely feel I was not only wasting my vote but also being disloyal to myself to vote for anyone else.
A suggestion: promote the idea contained in the following question by asking it of every candidate at every opportunity (even state officials swear an oath to uphold the federal constitution): As conceived, the U.S. Constitution constrains the federal government, limiting its powers to those carefully enumerated in that document. Are those constraints still in effect and, if you believe they are, where exactly do you believe the jurisdiction of the federal government is constrained for lack of Constitutional authority?
An interesting quote from an interesting site: “The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
– Norman Thomas
(1884-1968) six-time U.S. Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America
Source: 1948 – from an interview during the presidential campaign,
[Ed. note: Norman Thomas and Gus Hall, the U.S. Communist Party
Candidate, both quit American politics, agreeing that the Republican
and Democratic parties by 1970 had adopted every plank of the
Communist/Socialist parties and they no longer had an alternate party platform
on which to run.]
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Norman.Thomas.Quote.FFB1
I don’t think I ever seriously said I would vote for RP. Yes, in the primaries, MCain was my least favorite candidate. But I have always respected he experience. I agree with McCain about half the time and Obama none of the time. And as Jay outlined above, I do believe that Obama is a Marxists. There is much evidence towards that. I would rather vote for a centrist (or as I like to call him “a good Democrat”) than a Marxists. And I don’t want to vote for someone else and risk that the guy I really don’t like would get into office. So yes, it’s a bit of voting for and voting against.
I’ve read quite a bit about the electoral college and the whole idea is that the large states don’t have a heavier hand in elections. It’s something this country’s founder thought about long and hard. I think more importantly voter fraud needs to be handled.
I know you disagree with Bush many times, but you do have conservative values in many areas, and I KNOW you don’t want to live in a socialist country…I mean libertarianism is everything EXCEPT Socialism. And BTW, McCain and Bush differ on opinion ALOT. I know the war is an issue with you, but we are already there…I’d rather have an experienced military leader handling it.
I always respect your passionate and well thought arguments, Tara!
I guess I’m throwing out my vote this year . Nader is my guy . I seriously considered voting RP because Obama scares the heck out of me but McCain’s pick of Palin really put me over the edge.
Nader’s ideas are the only ones that seem even remotely logical to me and I guess I’m abandoning party loyalty and voting the issues .