No, You’re NOT Wasting Your Vote

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an abridged and updated version of Wasted Vote Bullies

Election Day is looming over us, and the possibly most discordant Presidential election in the memory of anyone alive today will finally come to a close. The rhetoric from both sides is getting louder and uglier, and some of the messages I’ve seen propagating around the Internet are truly digusting.

More than anything, the message that’s being pushed in these final hours is one of fear. We must vote for A, because B will destroy the nation, eat babies and barbecue puppies. This is nonsense, of course. The nation will survive. It will suffer, no matter whether Clinton or Trump is elected, because both have a stack of terrible ideas and a rabid base that prioritizes those terrible ideas. Those of us who realize this are being endl hounded over and over and over about our intent to vote third party.

Their arguments, insults and harangues are a giant load of hooey. A third party vote is MORE useful than a major party vote in an election where both major party candidates stink:

First: Your vote, by itself, is meaningless. It will not change the outcome of the election. No presidential election has come down to a single vote – ever.

Second: A vote for a third party candidate is not the same as a vote for Trump or Clinton. To presume so is to presume that a party “owns” your vote by default, and that you’re denying your vote to its proper place. It’s a demand that you embrace a tribal loyalty that you don’t have and that you do what someone else things is best. It also does not add to either’s tally.

Third: If you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil. You are condoning this miserable duopoly, every dirty trick that your party engaged in, every party decision that ignores your desires and preferences, everything your party has done that you disagree with. You’re saying to the party “you can continue to ignore me.” Nothing’s going to change if you are unhappy with your party’s candidate but vote for him or her anyway.

A third party vote, just like a vote for Clump, is by itself meaningless. It is in the aggregate that our votes stand a chance of mattering. This year, the aggregate looks big enough to make a difference.

Elections have consequences, and those consequences carry forward for years afterward. This isn’t the last election ever. Its results WILL affect future elections. The effects of Ross Perot’s run in 1992 appeared in the ideas and policies that swept the Democrats out of Congress in 1994 and in the centrist policies that arose during Bill Clinton’s latter 6 years in office. Since parties are merely compositions of people and policy positions, a significant third party vote will induce party strategists to look for ways to capture it via policy adjustments. Individuals who thought “third party votes are a waste” might reconsider that position. Individuals who have ideas that cross over into third party territory might be more encouraged to run for office. And, should a third party draw 5% of the popular vote, which remains a good possibility for Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party, it will share, next election, in the public funding pool that the major parties now duopolize.

Your third party vote tells your major party that your vote is in play. The major parties don’t care about their loyal, sure-thing voters. They only really care about two groups: their “friends” i.e. lobbyists, cronies, and big donors, and the voters that are “in play.” If a significant third party vote happens, the losing side is going to have to chase it for the next election, and it will have to embrace policies that appeal to much of that group. A third party vote in this election adds to the foundation for better choices in future elections.

Finally, if you live in a solidly “red” or “blue” state, e.g New York, California, Illinois et al on the Left, Alabama, Mississippi, the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, et al on the Right, your vote for a major party accomplishes nothing other than validating the worst elements of this election. Tell them you’re not happy. Vote third party. Vote Gary Johnson.

Still not convinced? Read on:

Full Article: Wasted Vote Bullies

About the Author

About Peter Venetoklis

I am twice-retired, a former rocket engineer and a former small business owner. At the very least, it makes for interesting party conversation. I'm also a life-long libertarian, I engage in an expanse of entertainments, and I squabble for sport.

Nowadays, I spend a good bit of my time arguing politics and editing this website.

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1 Comment

Sienkier on August 13, 2017 at 12:00 pm

>> Will Johnson and Weld move things in the right direction, even slightly or imperfectly? Would they be a net positive for liberty and for the nation? <<

Since you asked, No.

I'm no expert, but I think a victory for Johnson-Weld would have been worse for the country than a Clinton-SockPuppet Administration. The Leftist stay-behind forces would almost certainly have hijacked J-W's whole program and simply used their third-party status as a smoke screen, while the forces on the Right engaged in a circular firing squad.

Riffing off of C.S. Lewis, it would be better to live under Hitlery Rob'em Clinton than under the unchecked power of the omnipotent moral busybodies of the Left. Clinton's cruelty may sometimes have slept, her cupidity could be used by the Opposition to sometimes influence her actions or to stay her hand; but those who would torment us for our own good would torment us without end for they would do so under the false flag of Libertarianism and with the approval of their own conscience.