The Right Complains; I Answer

I'm so used to taking the Left to task that I'm happy to answer criticism from a Right-winger for a change, if only to prove to my Leftist friends that it does happen.

When I posted "Why I'll Vote Libertarian in 2016" in June, it was met by the usual complaint from the Right, which I'll quickly summarize in paraphrase:

You assume Gary Johnson has a shot at winning this election. He doesn't. A vote for Johnson is a vote for Hillary, and she will then select the next Supreme Court justices. If Hillary is allowed to make those appointments, you can kiss any conservative comeback in our lifetimes goodbye. America as we have known it will have the final nail hammered in the coffin. The stakes are just too important to allow that to happen. This would be suicide for the Right, so we need to suck it up and vote for Trump.

It was also specified that gay marriage and on-demand abortion are two issues that are "already decided", so they're red herrings used by others to "spook you into voting for them". The irony is that this particular argument is itself exactly crafted to spook a conservative into voting for Trump. It is exactly what it denounces. But I'm getting ahead of myself...


My Answer to the Right:

I think you missed it. I don't assume that Johnson has a shot at winning. I don't assume any candidate does. Rather, I'm telling you why I will not choose between your turd sandwich and their giant douche. No candidate has any chance of winning without votes. It's how voting works.

The hilarious part is that this argument... a vote for Johnson is a vote for the other side... is exactly the same argument offered by Democrats, practically word-for-word with only the names changed. It's the same bogus logic that a hostage-taker uses: "Give me what I want or their death is on your head!" Neither of you are right. A vote for Johnson is a vote for Johnson. It's not a vote for whoever the hell you don't like.

Perhaps it's been so long since they've had something to vote for that this is now a foreign concept to many voters. The first thing to understand is that I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I don't give a damn what the team colors are. I'm focused on Liberty for all Americans in all aspects of their lives. Not "the right" and not "the left". So when I have a chance to vote for Liberty, I'm not going to piss it away because you want to control my vote and use it on voting against something else... especially since that strategy of compromise is a clear and proven disaster.

Just look at your attitude about marriage and abortion. You speak as if you're not interested in a resurgence of anything. Rather, you're somewhat desperately trying to cling to what you have, constantly writing off loss after loss as the new status quo. Compromise simply means that you will lose more. It's inevitable given the rules under which you play. The Right seeks a "conservative resurgence" that will NEVER happen so long as their strategy is to move the halfway point after every occasion when you're already "met them halfway".

You anticipate a "nail in America's coffin" that was pounded in when people decided to stop voting on principle and start voting "strategically". Since that time you have not seen one single step toward any conservative comeback. Not one. Instead you've seen more government, more intrusion, more taxation, more usurpation of your rights no matter who takes office. You've seen bigger budgets and more spending under Republican and Democratic Presidents with both Republican and Democratic congresses. Conservative Republicanism is a zombie already. It's a pity that the dead know no pain, or else you'd feel it.

Know that I would give this same speech to the Democrats, except I would phrase it as the death of Liberty, and I would point out drones and surveillance and other things that matter to them. I would remind them of their own greed by exhuming Kennedy's exhortation to "Ask not what your country can do for you..." and invite them to examine how far they've strayed from that. I would remind them of their own hate and intolerance through their policies of censorship and repression and ridicule.

We will continue to have more executive orders to usurp the constitution and a constant stream of compromise whichever of these idiots takes office.

When most people are polled with questions of policy, not party, their answers are decidedly Libertarian. And yet, pundits tell them that though most people feel this way, they "can't win" if they vote their conscience. Obviously, if they all voted their conscience, they would. The problem isn't with their principles, it's that they have allowed other people to control their vote. They've been taught by politicians that politics is a team sport, and that there are only two teams. That's the bullshit thinking I want to get rid of in politics. From my perspective, the problem here isn't that I'm voting my conscience... it's that you don't yet value your Liberty enough to break this cycle.

My position has nothing to do with a desire to sit back and smugly say "told you so" when you lose. It has nothing to do with my satisfaction.

In fact, I'm intensely dissatisfied. I would not be doing this otherwise. In all of History, change is only effected through dissatisfaction. Nobody ever changed the way things are by saying, "yeah, that's not so bad." They will just weather the next incremental usurpation of their rights like a frog who will sit there in a pot until cooked if you turn up the heat slowly enough.

I want the winner to fall far short of a majority.
I want voters to know that others are willing to vote their conscience.
I want ranked-choice voting as a means of encouraging people to vote for policy over "teams"
I want them dissatisfied enough with the current process to take action to make that happen.
I want you and others as dissatisfied as I am.
I want you so pissed off that you won't continue to be the frog in the pot.

But most of all, I want to accurately let my position be known so that whoever wins will know that it exists and at least has the opportunity to govern accordingly.

It's not just your kids that live in this country; it's mine, too. And they're ready to vote for a new party... one that will actually represent them. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have been here forever, and there's no reason why they should be. They have no Constitutional standing, and their demise has nothing whatsoever to do with the structure of this country. There is no fantasy involved in the promotion of a third party. It has happened before and it will happen again.

Given the crap-ass choices that we have this election, I will vote for my candidate so as to more accurately reflect that neither the Red nor Blue candidate is won because the country voted for them.

An election is not an office pool. The purpose of an election is so that the People may make their will known. It cannot serve that purpose when you don't vote your will. The current divisive state of affairs is because of it. The problem with Trump is that he is exactly as you described... he doesn't give a shit what you think, except as a means of telling you what you want to hear. He will do what he wants to do, checked only by an obstructionist Congress. The problem with the system is that the problem with Clinton is exactly the same problem as the problem with Trump.

You who say you believe in one thing and vote to support another will never have an opinion that matters, because you have never expressed one that can be believed. I will vote my conscience with no regret whatsoever, and leave the rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic to you. I'm willing to let you lose it all slowly through a "win" or quickly through a loss in order to gain back Liberty, maybe not in this election but the next. If you lose this election, then it is because you have not felt enough pain to get you to stop running down the same stupid rut you've been traveling. If you lose, it's because you need to lose. As for me, I will always choose Liberty.

I SIDE WITH GARY JOHNSON