Last-Minute Political Thoughts:
I barely ever post here anymore, and mostly just use this account to keep track of and/or leave comments on other peoples' pages. But with the elections in the US coming down to the wire, I felt it was important to get my opinions out there in public. It's too late for me to influence anyone else here in Okinawa, obviously, but by and large they
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Like I said, Libertarians are hardly immune to this effect, either. Hell, I know I'm certainly not, which is why I generally avoid talking politics, and failed to even post something like this until the last minute, now that it's getting down to "do or die" time. But I DO feel that a strong third party has a better chance of actually CHANGING the situation than just sticking with the status quo and hoping it goes away.
Maybe this post would have been more effective if I just ignored my own personal theories on what's wrong with politics in this country and focused entirely on my stated goal of explaining why voting for a third party candidate isn't a wasted vote in most states? I don't know, but that ship has already sailed, so I guess it is what it is.
Anyway, now that all that hipster stuff is out of the way, there's two salient points I'd like to address:
1) Make no mistake, voting for Romney in Connecticut is no less futile than voting for someone you know won't be elected.
2) In this particular election it is NOT, at least, a case of voting for someone you know will never be President. It's a case of voting for someone who you know won't be President in 2012, but who, if and ONLY IF he is able to make a good showing of himself this year, stands a very real (admittedly small, but still real) chance of being President in 2016. That doesn't seem futile to me. The Libertarian party has never been in a position like this before, and I think it would be a shame to waste it.
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Don't get any idea, Army...
Moreover, I reject the complaint about the tone and tenor of the debate in today's society. You call it the toxic discourse; I call it the animating contest of freedom. In fact, I would like to find a way to get my side tooth augmentation surgery so that they can bite harder. At least if they're busy ripping eachother to shreds, they won't have time to screw us.
Look at what happens when congress gets along - No Child Left Behind, Patriot Act, Debt Ceiling hikes, sequesterization, campaign finance reform... need I say more? More partisan warfare, plz. The republic depends on it.
When Biden and Ryan duel with pistols, then we'll reassess.
In the end, though, my issue with third parties is that they are impossible. Either they are ineffectual, or they split the vote and get elected the guy that the majority of the country didn't want. When a third party gets big enough, it will just become the new second party. That may be required, in some case, and may allow some realignment, but even that's only temporary.
Still, even if pot-boy doesn't help Obama get reelected, if he does well enough to matter, he ensures that the right-of-center vote will be split enough in 2016, regardless of how Romney does as President, to get the Democrat elected.
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Or she. It isn't just a boys' club up there.
I realize this isn't the point you're making at all, not even remotely, but since we're talking in part about discourse itself, please keep your language inclusive, on this front.
<3
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(And who knows? Maybe Johnson might even discover something he never knew about himself in the next four years! :op )
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According to Wikipedia, "[h]e considers himself a conservative and has stated that he intends to considerably downsize the federal government if elected. Barnett has been described as a 'conservative with a conscience.'" Which is sexy sexy sexy. He doesn't have ballot access in my state, but I have declared him my new President, anyway. *_*
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