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As a voter and citizen in a democracy I should be able to vote my conscience and beliefs in elections. At its core this involves voting for candidates which represent my beliefs. Absent any palatable candidates, I would like to have some sort of mechanism to register my blanket disapproval such as a “None of the Above” option. Having such an option would put political parties and elected officials on notice that they aren’t up to snuff and the general public expects a lot more than what they are currently offering. These suggestions promote choice and competition in politics — that’s the American way right?
To my surprise, I get a lot of resistance from people whenever I broach such issues. People typically agree with me about how much our choices in elections in candidates and political parties are inadequate. But when the discussion veers towards answering the question of what we can do about it and I broach the third-party and independent option this is where I encounter resistance.
Some objections:
* Voting for third party and independent candidates will only result in siphoning votes away from the major party candidate you most agree with, resulting in a win for the major party candidate you most oppose. Therefore, your vote for an independent or a third party only increases the likelihood of the major party candidates whom you most disagree with winning and is wasting your vote.
* Politics is a game where you can’t always get what you want. Winning elections always involves some sort of compromise.
* Having a None of the Above option is stupid. Voters should just choose between those who are on the ballot. If they disagree with the choices, they should be active in the stages of politics before the candidates are formally chosen such as party primaries, to make sure candidates of their choice will be represented on the ballot.
I will try to address these issues one by one.
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3 comments:
The lesser evil is the enemy of the greater good.
Here's some more info on the 'None of the Above' option.
I voted Nader in 2008. Many liberals were angry with me (can't stand liberals myself, the only thing worse than a liberal is a conservative), but I simply responded that Obama didn't have a single belief that I agreed with (if we agreed, he didn't plan on doing anything strongly enough for it, or not to the degree to which I believed in said topic). I was told over and over that "a vote for Ralph is a vote for John," but that inherently doesn't make sense, because the Democrats and Obama never once owned my vote, so I'm not taking votes away from anybody. If Obama wants my vote, he better start being more left-wing and less corporate.
When Democrats and Republicans I know trot out the old spoiler argument, I've taken to turning it right around on them: if you vote for a Democrat or a Republican, you vote for the system that keeps them both in power; you could have voted independent or third party, but instead you chose to throw your vote away.
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