(Cross posted from Blogodidact) A quick rant to my Friends. With all due respect (and for some there is much respect due) to tho
se intending to sit out this coming presidential election, or voting 3rd party , out of ‘principle’ or in an effort to ‘vote my conscience’, those positions are not principled or conscientious, and I’ll go so far as to say that they are in fact Unprincipled and Unconscionable.
There is more to being principled than ticking off items on a checklist of do’s and don’ts… as if principles could operate in isolation and without regard to their wider purpose and context – Principles are an aid to thought, not a substitute for it! - to attempt to be principled, without being Prudent, is to be unprincipled (more on that to follow in next post). To make a choice that looks no further than your comfort zone in the ballot box, is in reality simply a more pleasant way for you to spend your time voting (or not), an easy escape from dealing with the principle purpose of your principles – and to neglect that wider, long-term perspective, is in fact being UnPrincipled, and there is no ‘act of conscience’ in taking the easy way out of anything.
If you are looking at the ballot as a choice between someone you think is worth voting for, and someone who isn’t, and voting that way – that is not being principled. Elections are not about casting your vote, or even electing a representative – those are only means to an end. The end is to preserve and protect our Rights and the rule of law – elections, representatives, even the Constitution itself, are only means to that end.
And if we’ve allowed the times to become so sorry that we can’t, in good conscience vote for someone (or party), because you don’t think that they’ll further those ends, then you must use your vote as a means of obstructing the candidate you think will do the most harm to your rights and the rule of law.
As foul as I personally find Romney’s politics to be, there is no comparison between his big govt inclinations and Obama’s intentional malice to our Individual Rights, Property Rights, the Constitution and the Rule of Law. That must be acted against, and the most effective means of doing so is not to be found in sitting out the election, or wasting, and I do mean wasting, your vote on some 3rd party candidate that has no chance of obstructing Obama’s pursuit of a second term.
‘You mean vote for the lesser of two evils?’
NO!!!
You don’t vote for the lesser of two evils – ever! – when you can’t vote for someone, you vote against the worst of the most likely evils, using the most effective weapon at hand for stopping the greater evil – the candidate most likely to be able to defeat them. That ain’t gonna be a third party candidate – not yet – and sitting the election out damn sure isn’t going to do a thing to slow Obama’s plans.
The fact is that Romney/Ryan is simply the most effective tool available to thwart the greater danger to our nation, which a second Obama administration poses.
Electing Romney isn’t going to solve anything, IMHO, but electing him in place of Obama buys us time, time we can use to try and revamp the GOP, or maybe replace it or maybe even work to scrap the two-party system (which are all short term solutions, but a start).
But we need time, and we as much of our Rights as we can manage to hold on to, to do that.
We won’t buy ourselves any time by doing anything that would enable Obama to stay put. And to stand by and allow that, even enable that, without doing everything you could to prevent it, would be deeply, deeply, unprincipled and unconscionable.
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I have contemplated whether or not to align myself with any candidate; It’s not so unsettling to me. No final decision on that yet.
You provide a tempting argument.
But, I do not agree.
The reasoning that a vote for Romney is merely a vote “Against Obama” may provide a fog to suppress one’s conscious, but it’s nonsense.
If you choose to vote for a candidate, it is simply a vote FOR that candidate. I’m flashing back to !(Not) logic here.
You say that you disagree, but you don’t say why… do you know? Beyond the unsettling thought of your vote not being aligned with a candidate? If I looked at my vote in the same way, I might be tempted to flash back on !(Not) logic as well… if I were tempted to believe that the purpose of my vote was to vote for a candidate.
I do not believe that. Our purpose in our govt is not to provide it with useful personnel, our responsibility in our govt is to see to it, as best we can, that it is limited to its proper role – as the safeguard and defender of our Rights.
While it is easy to see that it is in the interests of candidates to promote that view, that we vote for them, it is simply not true. They are a means to an end, nothing more. They serve a purpose in govt, and yes they serve as our representatives… but what of the person who didn’t give them their vote… are they no longer being represented in govt by them, because they didn’t vote for them? Is that voter left out of the operations and actions of govt because their candidate didn’t win?
No. Our elected officials serve in govt as a representative of their constituency, for the purpose of seeing to it that govt, whose powers are ‘derived from the consent of the governed’, will recognize, uphold and defend the Individual Rights, Property Rights and the Rule of Law, of all of We The People.
That is the ultimate purpose of your vote.
It’s all well and good to get out and campaign for someone you believe best reflects your views, but it is a mistake, a very serious mistake, IMHO, to confuse a candidate with the purpose for which they are elected to serve in govt.
Our ultimate responsibility, as voters, is to cast our vote so that our Rights, the Rule of Law and the Constitution which serves them, will be best secured, upheld and defended.
That is how I cast my vote.
I know too much about Mitt Romney, and his Big govt inclinations, to trust him with holding the line against the erosion of our rights, to trust him to roll back the expansion of regulatory agencies which threaten not only our rights but the Rule of Law.
So. Does that mean that my vote has no further value in the election?
No.
Because if my vote cannot be given for someone, there is something else it can be used for, it can be used to thwart the advance of a greater threat to our Rights and the Rule of Law, which is what I see a 2nd Obama administration to be.
So my vote is being used as a tool to oppose a 2nd Obama administration, rather than in support of Mitt Romney.
My actions will also not stop with Romney’s election; I expect to continue opposing nearly every action and policy his administration undertakes. I am not voting for him, I am voting for the best, most effective way to thwart the greater threat to our Rights.
What if there was a candidate, 3rd party say, who I thought Would be the perfect President, who I thought Would do their utmost to secure our Rights? If they had a real, credible chance of winning the election, then I would work for their election and would vote for them. But if I couldn’t see their having a credible chance to win, then I’d have to choose which of the candidates who did have a credible chance to win, posed the greater threat to our Rights, and which had the better chance of thwarting them, and put my vote there.
As I am doing in this election. It would be unprincipled, and unconscionable, of me to do otherwise.
The point isn’t to support any administration, but to secure and safeguard our Rights as best as possible. Confusing the purpose of your vote, for the person running for office… jeopardizes that.
I stated my reason for disagreement directly following the assertion (your flawed “For” one equals “Against” another premise.)
Plan to read the rest of your reply in a bit.
Didn’t intend to knock you off your rocker:) Disagreement among civilized persons is okay you know.
Hmmm… sorry, but that looks like less an explanation than an assertion.
Maybe I just expect explanations to be… er… longer – then again, longwindedness is something I tend towards
And you didn’t knock me off my rocker at all, I thoroughly enjoy disagreement – some of the best beers I’ve ever had were downed with big smiles deep into the night!