🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3695@labsline.win.net>
pat_sheaffer@labsline.win.net (PAT SHEAFFER) writes:
 
>...
> [Someone originally wrote:]
>
> >
> >BTW, I will be voting for neither Wilson nor Brown; I can't stand ei
> >the two statists.
>
>Then your vote is wasted.
 
And as long as enough people keep this mentality, it always *will* be a
"wasted vote."  Congratulations.  You've been assimilated *exactly* as the
Republicans and Democrats want you to be.  Resistance is futile.
 
Seriously, people...as long as the two entrenched parties can continue to
make a third party vote seem "wasted," their power will go unchecked.
 
We have repeatedly been betrayed by Republicans and Democrats alike.  Yet
like lemmings, we go back to them, making sure that we only punch the name
of some schmuck with a "D" or an "R" next to their name.
 
Sad, sad, sad.  Why do we keep rewarding these schmucks by returning them to
office?
 
Have you ever stopped to think about how much 5%, 7% or even 10% is in most
elections?  Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that it can make a
huge difference, and that the existing two parties will make concessions to
the third party in order to capture some of their vote?
 
Even a lousy 3% can be the difference.  It's happened.
 
I remind you of the 1992 Georgia Senate race.
 
The primary combatants were incumbent Wyche Fowler (D) and Paul Coverdell (R).
There was also a Libertarian candidate.
 
The vote in November was just about split down the middle for Fowler and
Coverdell--around 48% each.  The Libertarian candidate had just 3% of the
vote.  That makes them irrelevant, right?
 
Wrong.
 
In Georgia, no candidate can win with a less-than-majority vote (I'd like to
see a constitutional amendment like this!).  As a result, both candidates
*needed* that 3%.  Both Fowler and Coverdell pandered to the Libertarian
voters, both showing how they were more libertarian than the other and
throwing a few bones for libertarians in return for their support.  In the
end, the Libertarian candidate decided to support Coverdell, and Coverdell
won by about 3%.
 
Sounds like the Libertarian vote was a colossal waste.  Not.
 
Besides, I don't think a principled vote is ever a wasted vote.  And even if
it is, I'd rather waste my vote than let the lesser-of-two-evils voting
mentality make me a political prostitute.
 
 
Tim Irvin, Programmer/Analyst/Dinosaur Jockey
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, California
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