Monday, November 01, 2004
Let Freedom Ring!
Time to go vote, folks. Or not. It's a privilege; it's a right. But it is not really an obligation, and, if you don't want to, or don't feel comfortable, or don't think you know enough - then, by all means, stay out of it. No reason to get involved in something so dirty without a clear reason to do so.
My first election was 1972 - just after I turned 22. Until this year I have never voted for a presidential winner. Or a presidential loser, for that matter. That is to say that I have never voted for either a Democrat or a Republican for President. That is not quite so bizarre as it first sounds when you consider that I live in the predestined electoral college state of Texas. Never a doubt which way Texas is going to go.
My defense against irrelevancy has been to vote for third-party candidates. (First complaint: Even the designation "third-party" grates on me. Implicit in the designation is that there are only two "real" parties. I get upset even though, as I will explain later, I strongly prefer a two-party system.) I have even developed a transparently self-serving explanation for why that makes sense.
My basic observation is that the two main parties in US politics are both very centrist - and between them, cover about 10 degrees of arc in the full political circle. Picture it as approximately 11:59 to 12:01 on a round, analog clock face. (Or you can make it 11:55 to 12:05, if that seems too clausdrophobic.) This is a good thing. It is important that major institutions - particularly institutions as large and important as the US government be stable over long periods of time*. That stability is hard to maintain when fringe politics play an active role in government.
That's where the "third" parties come in. There is an irreducible minimum of any population that is determined to be discontented with human progress or human nature or human existence or . . . . humans. Usually those folks are religious - or claim to be. The purpose of third parties is to act as a safety valve - to provide a "free speech zone" for the moonbats for whom getting along with their fellow citizens and getting on with life are classified as "selling out." Third parties such as the Socialist Workers Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party (now THAT is an oxymoron!) give these nut jobs an innocuous place to play while the adult Americans run the world.
Because Texas is (with respect to the Electoral College**) a deterministic state, I have used my vote to preserve the third-party sandbox in our state. I have voted variously for the Socialist Workers, the Libertarians and the Greens as the opportunity presented itself. And I have never considered such a vote to be "wasted" - because my votes have served a valid and positive public purpose.
Only once in the past have I even considered voting for a Republican or a Democrat. If there had been any chance - even 0.000000000000001% - that Jimmy Carter could have carried Texas in 1980, I would have voted for Reagan. I think that I voted SWP or Libertarian that year.
This year, however, I succumbed; I did the dirty deed. The only third-party on the ballot was the Libertarians, and they had just offended me too deeply this year by promoting the conspiracy theory that the US government was a participant in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Win or lose, I might decide to publish my choice at a later date. I just had to get this much off my chest now.
* I have more to say on this topic in the upcoming Federalist series
** This is in the Federalist series, too.
¶ 11:23
My first election was 1972 - just after I turned 22. Until this year I have never voted for a presidential winner. Or a presidential loser, for that matter. That is to say that I have never voted for either a Democrat or a Republican for President. That is not quite so bizarre as it first sounds when you consider that I live in the predestined electoral college state of Texas. Never a doubt which way Texas is going to go.
My defense against irrelevancy has been to vote for third-party candidates. (First complaint: Even the designation "third-party" grates on me. Implicit in the designation is that there are only two "real" parties. I get upset even though, as I will explain later, I strongly prefer a two-party system.) I have even developed a transparently self-serving explanation for why that makes sense.
My basic observation is that the two main parties in US politics are both very centrist - and between them, cover about 10 degrees of arc in the full political circle. Picture it as approximately 11:59 to 12:01 on a round, analog clock face. (Or you can make it 11:55 to 12:05, if that seems too clausdrophobic.) This is a good thing. It is important that major institutions - particularly institutions as large and important as the US government be stable over long periods of time*. That stability is hard to maintain when fringe politics play an active role in government.
That's where the "third" parties come in. There is an irreducible minimum of any population that is determined to be discontented with human progress or human nature or human existence or . . . . humans. Usually those folks are religious - or claim to be. The purpose of third parties is to act as a safety valve - to provide a "free speech zone" for the moonbats for whom getting along with their fellow citizens and getting on with life are classified as "selling out." Third parties such as the Socialist Workers Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party (now THAT is an oxymoron!) give these nut jobs an innocuous place to play while the adult Americans run the world.
Because Texas is (with respect to the Electoral College**) a deterministic state, I have used my vote to preserve the third-party sandbox in our state. I have voted variously for the Socialist Workers, the Libertarians and the Greens as the opportunity presented itself. And I have never considered such a vote to be "wasted" - because my votes have served a valid and positive public purpose.
Only once in the past have I even considered voting for a Republican or a Democrat. If there had been any chance - even 0.000000000000001% - that Jimmy Carter could have carried Texas in 1980, I would have voted for Reagan. I think that I voted SWP or Libertarian that year.
This year, however, I succumbed; I did the dirty deed. The only third-party on the ballot was the Libertarians, and they had just offended me too deeply this year by promoting the conspiracy theory that the US government was a participant in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Win or lose, I might decide to publish my choice at a later date. I just had to get this much off my chest now.
* I have more to say on this topic in the upcoming Federalist series
** This is in the Federalist series, too.
¶ 11:23
