Yet another “yeah” to that which was expressed by SenorBeef and stocandrsn.
I tend to agree more often with more of what the Democratic party is doing (or campaigning on) than the Republican, but I’m always alert for any opportunity to vote for a decent Republican candidate, or a good third-party candidate. To do otherwise gives the Democratic party no particular reason to try to to sew up my vote, and gives the Republicans and other parties no reason to consider running someone who might attract my vote.
It seems to me that if we abstract this away from politics, and make it a vote on where to eat, no-one would object to “tactical voting” – the three choices, Italian, Anglo-Welsh Lardburgerama, Chinese: you love Italian, but you know it won’t get the majority vote, however you hate Anglo-Welsh Lardburgerama but you could live with Chinese, whatcha gonna do?
Don’t give me this “end of story” crap. I want to make a symbolic statement that I’m tired of the Lesser of Two Evils, without unintentionally helping the Worse of Two Evils to get into Office. I think we’d get some interesting results if we allowed people to vote their conscience without the fear they will help the bad guy win.
Go right ahead and apologize for posting early in the day, but never, ever apologize for being young, and never, ever, EVER apologize for being liberal.
To “apologize” for being liberal is to buy into the conservative line that to be liberal is to be unrealistically idealistic, inexperienced, and untested. That’s pure B.S.
Be a liberal, and be a PROUD one … for you are standing on the shoulders of some damn great men and women when you do so!
…and their shoulders are getting sore because oppressive shoulder-standers who never bother looking down keep grinding with their stormtrooper Doc Marten clodhoppers while retaining the better view for thems…
Nah, it’s the "Vote for whoever you want, but don’t tell me I’m shit just because I voted for Gore and I’m not as cool & liberal as you guys.:rolleyes:
I don’t either, I’m just defending those who voted for Gore because he was a better choice than Bush. I don’t know where you guys get off thinking you’re all high & mighty because you would never vote for the lesser of two evils. (Not that I think Gore is evil, but apparently some of you do.)
I agree. But we’re not necessarily talking about that. It might be that a lot of people liked Gore better than Bush, but liked Nader a little better than Gore. Given that Nader didn’t stand a chance, it would be a perfectly valid strategy to cast your vote where you think it will do some good. A lot of people do that, and it doesn’t mean they’re voting for someone they don’t like, or just voting based on party affiliation - it just means they’re practical. Sometimes it’s better not to vote for the guy way out in left field even if you like some of the stuff he has to say - if there’s a reasonable and practical alternative. The way I see it, we had one guy who was pretty certain to get us into a war and fuck up the economy, and 2 guys who probably wouldn’t. It makes perfect sense, in spite of Voodoochile’s assertion that such people are “disgusting”, “petty”, “immature”, and “make him sick”. Fuck that noise.
They rank several election methods with several objective criteria, and their favorite is the Condorcet method. The Approval and Cardinal methods (“point system”) also come out looking pretty good, but they roundly condemn Instant Runoff Voting.
Heh. Blowero, why don’t we just agree that we’re both sick of people telling us how to vote? I don’t believe in strategic voting, but I’ll happily not press the point.
Erm, don’t be so touchy. I don’t think the statement was ever made that if you vote for Gore, you’re the spawn of Satan. It’s perfectly reasonable to vote for Gore if you feel that he’s aligned with your politics, even if you like Nader, and like Gore a little less but still feel that he’s a reasonable vote.
Personally, I’m only saying that if you really feel that a third party candidate truly represents your political views, and neither of the two major candidates do at all, yet you cast a vote for one of them anyway specifically because the little guy won’t win–that’s the practice I’m questioning.
Chill out. No one is questioning an honest decision to cast a vote for a major candidate if you like what he has to say.
