22 October 2004
I’m not super excited about Michael Badnarik, but I’ll be voting for him. Sure, he’s no Harry Browne or (former New Mexico governor) Gary Johnson, but he’s still a fur sight better than Dubya or Kerry.
“But Gene,” you bleat, “he can’t win. You’re just wasting your vote!”
Am I? How can you be qualified to tell me how much I value an action?
In order to make sense of the assertion, I need to understand what “waste” is. I will stipulate that “waste” constitutes expenditure without purpose. If I’m running the faucet into the sink am I wasting water or am I flushing the drain? If I leave my computer on am I wasting electricity or am I saving boot-up time? An evaluation of waste demands a metric. When it comes to voting, there are many. Most of us get at least an emotional rush out of it. Whether it’s that warm fuzzy from civic engagement, or the sober satisfaction of prudent strategory. As in: “I know Burry is awful, but Kesh is worse!” or “Vote YES 4 Kidz!” I get it. Emotionalism matters. Whether you’re voting for Dubya in order to keep the blood of President Kerry’s crimes off your hands, or just taking pride in NOT robbing your neighbors (Vote NO 4 Kids!), your vote is never wasted if it pleases you.
But enough of “rank sentimentalism” (Merci, M Renault!) Other than palliating the proletariat, what does voting actually DO? Practically? Really? Well, arguably it elects a president or a dog catcher. And it can qualify a political party for future ballots. Or does it? One of the best ways of revealing the value of something is to remove it from the equation and see what changes. If you hadn’t voted for Dubya in 2000, he still would have lost Hawaii and won the Union. That vote then, was wasted. It made no difference. By THAT metric, anyway. Of course, there is a chance, a very small chance, that your next vote is gonna put Geohn Burry over the top and defeat Jorge Kesh. There is a less small chance that my next vote for the Libertarian candidate will be the one that puts our party over the top and qualifies us for automatic ballot status next time.
So I’ll make you a bet! The same wager I’ve been offering around the last couple of months. I’ll put up an ounce of gold and you put up an ounce of silver. If the Presidential election comes down to your State, and your State comes down to your vote, you win! Otherwise you owe me an ounce of silver (or about eight bucks federal paper.)
I’ve been offering about fifty to one odds, and so far I have no takers, not even from the big noises who still scold us for “wasting” our votes.
update 180421: Bad Example #1 —
Kerry and Bush are both war criminals,
and therefore equally bad. I had preferred, and predicted, a Kerry win. I’d hoped that a Democrat in the White House might remind Republicans to feign free market allegiance again. Faced with a monolithic Demoblican OR Repucrat government, I’ll take division over union.
Give me Liberty, or Give me Gridlock!
Bad Example #2: Voting YES 4 Kidz never works,
as the beneficiaries of such regular larcenies continue to be
pampered educrats and union thugs.
I’m less excited about Gary Johnson now, having voted for him twice, than I was in ‘04, and continue to despair of seeing a candidate of the calibre of Harry Browne or Ron Paul any time soon (despite their respective “flaws.”) Nevertheless, I salute him, and his back to back record breaking runs. update 210228: I still salute him, even though Jo Jorgensen has just eclipsed his first record in her 2020 run. The Iron Man now occupies the first and third places in the LP’s Presidential Derby, with Dr JoJo now shoehorned in at second. It’s a pity that neither Mr Browne nor Dr Paul (in their own respective runs) enjoyed the general level of notoriety that libertarians do today.
America might have saved itself a lot of trouble! (frowny face emotji)