A Waste of A Vote |
"Go ahead and vote for that third party candidate," my mom used to tell me in a sardonic tone. "You’ll just be wasting your vote."
That was her theory anyway. If you don’t vote Republican or Democrat, don’t bother going to the voting booth. Your guy can’t win an election. Don’t waste your time.
I was a young, wanna-be hippie style person that talked cultural revolution in those frenzied days after the Democratic Party convention of 1968. Make love not war, we said. Eden is coming. Who needs your world of old-thinking gray-hairs?
In the intervening thirty plus years ("Don’t trust anyone over thirty") of building a career and growing a love for this country, I still hold a fondness for fresh thinking. I never felt comfortable with Mom’s analysis. Even though I tend to vote with the mainstream, I respect the contribution of the third party. They are not just wastes of time, effort and money.
The third party is the home of the challenging new idea. For the political leader who wants to strike out in a new direction, the mainstream parties are confining. "That’s very well that you want to end the War on Drugs," I imagine a party boss confiding to a leader. "Keep your opinion to yourself. We have polls, we have federal support of this election, and we have the party machine. We’re cracking down on drug dealers."
Another independent idea dies under the pressure of large group pressure. A majority is a peril to the creative new approach.
Why is it so important to vote for a "winner?" This country and culture is fixated by the lure of the sports hero, the legend of number 1. "Winning isn’t everything, its the only thing," said American sports philosopher, Vince Lombardi. Being number two is the first loser. Third place is a laughable and dirty bus station. Third parties can’t get much respect in a culture of hero-fawners.
While it is unlikely that we’ll see a Libertarian, Green, or Reform president in the next two presidential elections, these and other third parties keep the debate fresh and in perspective. If both parties would rather not talk about civil liberties, I’m glad that the Libertarians are broadening the debate. If the world is slip-sliding into an ecological disaster, and both Democrats and Republicans profit from it, don’t we need the Greens to ask those uncomfortable little questions?
There is no vote wasted in making a third choice. The real world is not just about Bad Choice A versus Wrong Choice B. There is always a third way, and many more. The centrist position is too often a place of neutered compromise.
"Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate," said Mark Cohen. Remember William Jefferson Clinton and his middle-class tax cut? A choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum will give us an unhappy amalgam of trade-offs, designed to appease the largest crowd.
Go ahead and vote for that third party candidate. I doubt if your hero will be this countries’ chief executive in January. So what? That leader may point to a destination for this country previously uncharted by the Democrats or Republicans. We need the kind of leadership that looks to the long term best interest of this country. We’ve seen enough deals born of expedience.