I have a bumper sticker that explains my position: “Don’t blame me, I voted Libertarian.”
I have a libertarian mindset and have voted Libertarian for many years. Republicrats like to tell me that I’m wasting my vote. Hardly!
You know who really wasted their votes? The people who voted for George Herbert Walker Read My Lips No New Taxes Bush and were surprised by the (up until then) single largest tax increase in the nation’s history, that’s who.
Or the people that voted for Bill Clinton (again) expecting that somehow the Clintons would not (continue to) be the sleaziest first family to ever inhabit the White House.
Anyone who votes for politicians promising lower taxes and more government benefits is voting for a lie, and wasting their votes.
My vote, on the other hand, accomplishes exactly its intended purpose. It sends the message that I don’t like either of the Republicrat offerings.
Do you watch “Survivor” or “Big Brother” — those shows where competitors have to hoodwink their opponents and convince their friends to vote others off the island or out of the house? Often at the end, when it comes time for the final vote, the finalists are equally despicable. You look at them and say to yourself, “I really don’t want either one to win.”
The finalists are not the ones who exhibit qualities we admire. Instead, they are the back-stabbers and double crossing manipulators. They know how to “work” people to get what they want, and what they want is to win. That’s how the system works. We don’t get the best and brightest, we get the ones who know how to use people. The folks voting have to hold their noses and vote for one or the other of the not-so-deserving finalists.
And so it is with politics. The finalists aren’t the people best qualified, they’re the ones who know how to work the system. Just look at any political race, but particularly at the presidential nominees of recent decades. Are these really the best we can do? George W. Bush, John Kerry and Al Gore? Bob Dole? Walter Mondale? Jimmy Carter? Michael Dukakis? Bill Clinton?!?
Does anyone seriously believe that the green Barack Obama, with not even a full term as U.S. Senator behind him, or the aging John McCain are the two people in the whole country best qualified to be president? Really?
Go ahead, hold your nose and waste your vote on a Republicrat. But don’t blame me. I’m writing in Ron Paul.