Friday, October 17, 2008

My Wasted Vote

I need to take a break from looking through Obama and McCain's campaign platforms. Poring through pages of broken plans and ill conceived ideas is tiring and frustrating. I want to talk about my wasted vote.

As my other blog articles (and the intro to this one) indicate, I'm no big fan of John McCain or Barack Obama. The two party system in place in this country has repeatedly failed us, and will continue to do so for as long as it exists. The republicans and democrats can push forward any two misfits they find, and people vote for them because we think they're the only choices.

I don't think most people are voting for the person they think is best for the job. Honestly, I don't think most people vote for a candidate. I would say it's more accurate that they're voting against the other guy. I think the most common justification for voting a certain way is, "At least he isn't as bad as ."

At some point the political parties must have realized that this is the case. The campaigns are completely geared towards showing that they are not each other, the current administration, or "the good ol' boy network", but they don't really tell you who their candidates are. It's because they don't want you to know.

I could not live with myself if I voted for Obama or McCain, so I'm voting third party.

If I looked at voting like everybody else, my vote would be completely ineffective. Most people don't know who my candidate is, much less that he is running for president. He has no chance of winning. My vote won't be used to assure 'the other guy' doesn't get elected. If one candidate wins by one vote I could be deemed responsible. So, is my vote wasted?

The lesser of two evils is still evil. As I said, I cannot possibly vote for Obama or McCain. My choice is between not voting at all and voting my conscience. It's a pretty easy choice. Perhaps we would get some better candidates to choose from if everybody actually voted for the candidate they thought was the best. Campaigns may even focus more on the issues. Third party candidates could become viable. At the very least, we would all be able to stand up and be proud of who we voted for instead of hoping somebody better comes along next time.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

So you have a blog? Who knew?? If it wasn't for facebook, I never would have, probably. :)

It's been a while since you posted, don't give it up! You have some good thoughts and expression.

Lins

Vilrandir said...

I think there's an excellent Simpsons episode where the two aliens (Kodos and Kang, I think) invade the Earth and take possesion of the bodies of the two candidates. Having "no one else" to vote for, the Americans have to choose who of the two aliens gets to enslave humanity. I applaud your courage and decision.

On the other side, a muliple party system (as Mexico has) isn't so cool either, I believe it promotes corruption heavily.