Election day is getting closer. Everywhere I turn people are rocking the vote, encouraging us to go to the polls. I was watching some show on the WE channel about making wedding cakes and they tell me they will sign me up to vote because of my vagina. (Apparently the Vagina Enabled People have been staying away from the polls in droves. If only we could tear ourselves away from Bridezillas long enough to be bothered! What idiots we are. Thank goodness for the WE channel who will register us to vote!!!)
I’ve been very open about not talking politics this time around. I’ve been open about my voting practice for this election. The fact that I refuse to cast a supporting vote for either Obama or McCain is quite distressing to my mother, but since she realises I’m kissing 40 I think she’s being more subtle in her entreaties. Her latest recommendation was that I read Chuck Colson’s latest essay in Christianity Today.
Chuck apparently has at least one thing in common with the WE channel because he also thinks I need to vote on Election Day. He quotes everything from Deuteronomy to Augustine to the founding fathers. His conclusion is that voting is my sacred duty. Not because of my vagina but because of my salvation.
I’ve been voting since I was 18. In fact, registering to vote was the first thing I did once I turned 18. I dreamed about it and looked forward to it. Like a lot of kids in the Reagan era, I fell in love with politics. Reagan and his surrounding handlers and speechwriters were the closest thing we’ve had in real life to the idealised Love Of America and Freedom politics last seen on The West Wing and it charged me. I majored in Politics, studied the Politburo and celebrated like a madwoman when they tore down the Berlin Wall. I am far from a political ignoramus.
That is why I’m voting this year. Yes, I AM voting.
By not voting for president. See, there are different kinds of “not voting”. There’s the I-Can’t-Be-Bothered-To-Give-A-Damn attitude where people don’t register, don’t care and spend all their voting energy picking Karaoke champions by texting the Fox network. Then there’s the kind of not voting I’m doing.
It’s the kind where you see what the candidates have to say. You stay away from the evening news and its lipsticked pigs and terrorist fist jabs, dig through websites, policy papers and dry pdfs about health care, economics and foreign policy. You hang out at think tanks and read up on the choices. You study and you realise that neither guy is really all that much into liberty, reducing government size and reducing government debt. You realise that both of your choices–even the one advanced by the party who supposedly believes in smaller government and lower taxes–are so cravenly eager to get their hands on the treasury and throw money at their favourite choices that you decide you are voting this year.
For neither of them.
I AM going to the polls. I am voting for other candidates in other races. But when it comes time to say who Katherine Coble wants in the big office she is going to write in Ron Paul or Thomas Jefferson. I will be on record as voting for President, but I will be on record as voting for the type of president I think we need. Not the type of president that the oligarchy thinks we should have. I’m voting not for president but for America.
That is my sacred duty and I’m fulfilling it as I see fit.
Kat:
I will not be as cleaver as your mother. You need to vote for McCain. Why? He is the better! The choice not to vote is a vote for the other guy.
Conservatives and Libertarians do not like McCain for his liberal views on the economy and spending over the years. I do not blame them. McCain is by far not my first choice, but McCain will spend far less and limit the government compared to Obama.
Obama wants to nationalize health care $$$$$
Obama wants to “roll back tax cuts” $$$$
Obama wants to give those who don’t pay taxes stimulus checks $$$$
Obama plan is the closest to socialism since FDR.
Ron Paul will not be elected {Thank the Lord} and neither will Thomas Jefferson. You political scholar– should know that at some point, a lesser of two evils is a better choice.
I think it is naive to vote in a manner for someone you know will not get elected. A protest vote is a cowards way out.
When we grow up sometimes we have to make difficult decisions and neither option is our first choice. I think it is your duty and mine to make a choice as a grown-up for the better option.
Clearly — We all will agree come January 2009 McCain or Obama will be our president not Ron Paul or Thomas Jefferson.
Are you telling me that Chuck Colson says that your salvation depends on your helping to maintain the two-party system?* Or anyone’s salvation? Bwahahaha!
*I would prefer a more open political process myself, but IMO the only connection between divine will and the two-party system is that the creator is mighty pleased when two people give me birthday parties.
Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They’re nothing but hideous space reptiles. [unmasks them]
[audience gasps in terror]
Kodos: It’s true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It’s a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.
[murmurs]
Man1: He’s right, this is a two-party system.
Man2: Well, I believe I’ll vote for a third-party candidate.
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away!
[Kang and Kodos laugh out loud]
[Ross Perot smashes his "Perot 96" hat]
– “Treehouse of Horror VII”
Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.
I believe TN doesn’t even count write-in votes unless someone is a “registered write-in candidate” ala Kurita. If you can’t stomach Barr (understandable) you might consider Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party.
I’ve always encouraged people to vote, but I try to avoid saying who someone should vote for. I’m very open about who I’m voting for and why, and who I’m not voting for and why, but I don’t think I’ve ever said something like “You need to vote for X.” I think it’s good to encourage people to vote, but let people vote their conscience.
TheBoyfriend™ votes as a carbon copy of me. He doesn’t follow politics, and largely doesn’t care, so when election day comes and we drive to the polls before we go in he asks “So who am I voting for again?” My response is always the same: “You’re voting for whoever you think would do the best job. I’m going to be voting for X, X and X.”
I think it is naive to vote in a manner for someone you know will not get elected. A protest vote is a cowards way out.
It is? Was it a coward’s way out to refuse to grow up, suck it up and play along with the King George III and his taxes because, after all, the King is appointed by God. Right?
So were Paine and Jefferson and Hamilton and Washington cowards? Because they chose to fight what they believed was a corrupt system that had pulled away from God’s design for man?
I don’t think so.
Regardless, I live in a red state that will go heavily for McCain whether I vote or not. In that case, my protest vote is not a vote for Obama at all. If I were in, say, Ohio, where the color of the state is up for grabs I might view this whole thing differently. But since I am in a state that is securely McCain, I think this is the ideal time for a protest vote.
I have thought about this.
I believe TN doesn’t even count write-in votes unless someone is a “registered write-in candidate” ala Kurita.
They don’t. I’ve looked at Jay, and may change my mind. But I’m trying to decide which is the more effective protesticular statement.
Are you telling me that Chuck Colson says that your salvation depends on your helping to maintain the two-party system?
No. He’s saying that the logical outgrowth of our salvation is that
We live in a democracy so God entrusts to us the job of choosing leaders he will anoint. Like Samuel, we are commisioned to choose leaders of competence, virtue and character. That’s why not voting or rejecting candidates because they are not perfect on some biblical or political score sheet is a dereliction of our trust.
Since I believe–as I just mentioned above–that my state is spoken for in terms of Electoral votes and I believe that my Libertarianism is the political calling of my Christian faith, I think that this is the ideal time for a libertarian protest vote.
And the most competent and virtuous candidate, with the best character, must by definition be the candidate of one of the two major parties? Look, I don’t share your faith or your politics, but I don’t think you’re exactly straining at a gnat here. The idea that we must use the two-party system to work out the divine plan … no, can’t go there.
I’m having a really hard time rationalizing a protest vote for Bob Barr.
Still remember when he was a Republican weasel and can’t bring myself to vote for someone who was so odious in word and deed just a few years ago.
I write in candidates more often than you might think, so I understand and I respect your decision. After the bailout vote in the Senate, I came close to doing that myself.
Kat,
Kudos. I am voting for a major party candidate, because I do have a strong preference (though I have issues with my preferred candidate). However, as long as people feel obligated to vote for the “lesser of two evils,” there will be no change, and we will continue to only have a choice between two evils. I think it’s eventually going to take a large number of voters refusing to vote for the Republican or Democratic nominee in order to change our current system.
I’m frustrated enough that we don’t even really have a contest for President in Tennessee, due to our system of electing electors. I admit that I don’t know what is the ideal method of selecting a president, but I’m certainly not satisfied with our current system.
Kat,
I applaud you. Keep standing for what you believe in. That’s what democracy is all about.
Brother, a vote for anyone else is not a vote for the other guy. Here is some simple math as given by Vox Day, modified from the Bush/Kerry era:
Bush gets 100 votes.
Obama gets 100 votes.
Paul gets 2 votes (from Kat and I).
How many votes does Obama have:
a) 32
b) 102
c) 412
d) 100
The correct answer is 100.
I did the lesser of two evils the last two elections, voting for George W Bush because I knew better than to vote for Al Gore and John Kerry.
The lesser of two evils is still evil. The bailout vote should be evidence of that…
W is among if not the worst RINO I’ve ever seen. He’s no friend of liberty. He spends more than most Democrats could dream of getting away with (because the masses go ‘well, Republicans are against spending so if he says we need it, we must need it.’)
I may be pragmatic about alot of things but I’m no longer being pragmatic about my vote.
It is absolutely sickening to me that the Republican Party ridiculed Paul and his supporters and as soon as McCain wins the nominations, they immediately begin courting them by trying to pass him off as some sort of defender of liberty because of their ability to promote, campaign, and money bomb.
McCain may have been a friend of liberty while in the military, but I don’t believe he’s been one as a Senator. You can’t convince me otherwise.
If I can’t absolutely support a particular candidate, I need to stay home or write in someone I actually believe in. It may not count but I can sleep knowing that I did not consent to the path to hell being paved with supposed good intentions while we all ride in the hand basket… with most people wondering why we are there in the first place.
And don’t give me the “if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain” line. Give me someone worthy of my vote and I will do so. There hasn’t be a Republican since Ronald Reagan actually worthy of my vote, and I was too young then.
Speaking of Vox Day, he writes about wasted votes and the coming economic collapse this week:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=77128
Does Jim Cooper even have an opponent? Besides the Senate, what other down ticket races are there? Your state house seat?
I guess I don’t know much about Barr, other than what’s on his website. His platform seems solid. Is there something I don’t know about him?
Bob Barr was a Republican that switched to the Libertarian Party.
He voted for a number of anti-liberty things such as the Defense of Marriage Act (he wrote it; we can argue about morality in a separate thread) and voted for the Patriot Act.
He says he regrets that vote.
I have been silent on this post, but I want to say that I agree you should vote or not vote for whomever you choose. I respect your decision not to vote.
You’ve probably guessed I’m voting for Obama, even though he’s the secret Muslim Antichrist (false) and he’s going to end the tax cuts for the wealthy (true). In fact, even if my taxes increased significantly, I would welcome it (so long as increases are equal) as a chance to serve my country.
Let me elaborate: Ballooning debt on personal and governmental levels is far beyond the natural controls of market forces. The Invisible Hand is obviously out to lunch. I think it’s fair to have an across the board level tax increase.
As far as nationalizing healthcare, it seems much less drastic since the government just invested hundreds of billions of dollars in the erstwhile all-powerful, all-knowing market.
And let’s face it, campaign promises are rarely, if ever, kept; at least in their original forms. My belief is that Obama’s plans, though radical, will be reduced in magnitude through Congressional debate and compromise, and then get the nation on a better path. After all, that’s the way politics is supposed to work.
Bob Barr was a Republican that switched to the Libertarian Party.
There are (at least) two kinds of Libertarians, the “extreme liberty” type and the “states rights” types. Both Bob Barr and Ron Paul are of the latter. They view the government as entitled to restrict liberty in anyway it sees fit so long as it happens at the STATE level and not the FEDERAL level.