None of the above!
The other day my grandmother and I were talking on the phone and lamenting the state of American politics. Both of us were irritated that the current election seems to be a choice between two candidates we don’t like. “I wish I could press a button for ‘none of the above’,” she said.
Actually, I pointed out, American voters in 2008 can press one of four buttons for “none of the above”:
- Ralph Nader is running as an independent;
- Bob Barr is running as the Libertarian candidate;
- Chuck Baldwin is representing the Constitution Party;
- and Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party nominee.
The mainstream media has largely ignored these guys; I guess they can’t compete with such important topics as the strange folks Barack Obama associates with and what nation Sarah Palin can see from her backyard. But they are on the ballot in most states, and while they may not match Obama and John McCain in the hype-and-vacuous-rhetoric department, they have some interesting things to say.
“But isn’t it throwing away your vote to vote for someone you know won’t win?” Well, no:
- If third-party candidates gather lots of votes, perhaps mainstream America, starting with the media, will start to take them a little more seriously. This gets us more choices, which can hardly be a bad thing.
- The more voters go for third-party candidates, the more likely it is that the two major parties will get the message of dissatisfaction and field better candidates next time around. We have a great need for competent leadership and substantive, sensible policy, and we aren’t going to get there by voting for the lesser of two evils and supporting a way of doing things which seems to reward politicians for being dumber. (Frankly, I have trouble deciding which is the lesser of the two evils this time.)
- The “spoiler effect” of a third-party candidate has been seen before. But unless you live in a swing state, your vote is unlikely to “spoil” the election. And just talking about “spoiling” assumes you can identify one of the mainstream candidates who is worse than the other.
My grandmother thought this sounded like good reasoning. Do you?
Add comment October 6th, 2008
