A vote for a third party is a vote for Obama?

(sorry, I was looking for a good voting picture and, well… )

This morning I cast my vote. The line started at the school, wrapped around the entire block and ended back at the school. I got some good reading in. I got to use an old fashioned lever based voting booth for the first time.

I cast a vote not for Obama, not for McCain, but for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate. I pulled the lever in follow up on personal letters written to McCain and various Republican leaders – you lost my vote. In so doing did I cast a vote for Obama? Lets illustrate:

A ridiculous illustration

A man pulls a gun and says “I’m going to shoot your mother, or your neighbor, you choose” would it be a moral and decent decision to say “well I certainly don’t want my mom to be shot”? Or would you take an action that wasn’t put in front of you, yet existed all along, and intervene? Would you try to take the man out, though he has a gun and you have nothing.

Or maybe this man was behind thick armor with heavy artillery – you clearly have no chance of taking him out. And he gives you the choice between shooting your mom or severely beating your neighbor. One of these is clearly less evil than the other, and you can’t personally make the difference anyway right? What if he gave you that choice every day of your life and you went on voting for the lesser evil. By voting for the beating today, you bring another tomorrow until one day you decide to take option C and sound the alarm.

Or… is it so ridiculous?

George W. Bush has the lowest approval ratings ever for a President. Democrats hate him, Republicans hate him. How did he get there?

Fool me once, shame on you
In 2000, who did you vote for? We knew Bush Sr. was a moderate, we suspected the same of Jr. But we didn’t want Al Gore, so in the primaries we chose name recognition and the guy who could probably win. We heard Bush saying things we didn’t really like, but we optimistically said “oh look how smart, he’s talking center and just wait until he gets in office, he’ll go to the right. we have congress already, it will be great!” We were duped. Ok fine, now we know

Fool me twice, shame on me
In 2004 we knew we had a big government neo-con on our hands. But we didn’t want John Kerry. Did we demand another choice? A true Conservative? In 1976 Ronald Reagan challenged incumbent President Ford, in 2004 we played it safe, we picked the lesser evil.

Fool me three times…?
In 1976, Reagan lost, Ford lost, the greater evil won the Presidency in Jimmy Carter… but the pieces were in place for the Conservative Revolution that would change the game in America. In 1980 Reagan won a landslide.

In 2008 we selected John McCain. In 2008 many people told me “we can’t have Obama, if you don’t vote McCain it is a vote for Obama,” the lesser evil. Let’s assume McCain wins tonight. We get the lesser evil expanding government at a slightly less rapid pace. In 2012 we’ll have an incumbent, we’ll march him back out. In 2016 we’ll choose another neo-con, we’ll beat our neighbor instead of shooting our mom …or calling the cops.

It will happen, because Republicans STILL don’t get the message. What if we made them an offer they cant refuse? Either you march out true Conservative candidates, or you can expect to win 10-20% of the vote. What if in this election 25% voted McCain, 12% voted Libertarian, 8% wrote in Ron Paul, 6% voted Constitution Party. Obama would have his landslide, but maybe the seeds of 1980 could be planted for 2012?

A vote against party line is a vote for the enemy?

The logic here says that my vote cast for a Libertarian is meaningless, and somehow a vote cast for John McCain is meaningFUL. Both count once. Both are statistically equal. Both are cast by civic duty. Only one is cast with conviction.

In 1776, 56 men had to cast a vote and sign a paper. On the one hand there was a safe vote though it meant unreasonable taxes and government interference. The other choice was a longshot, a traitorous vote that was likely to mean death.

A group of guys storm a school in Colorado with guns. They point the gun at a girl’s head and say “Do you believe in God?” and in that moment there is a safe vote, a “lesser evil” vote that secures a better immediate future.

The truth is our votes are ALL statistically meaningless unless we ALL vote true conviction. We are ALL dupes and pawns unless we ALL fight for what we truly believe. Until then if we individually vote our conviction, we are at best martyrs, but at worst we are sleeping with clean consciences.