What a time to be alive! After a long eight years, President Obama is finally making his farewell tour as the POTUS. The primary season is just about over and with Trump and Hillary looking like the presumptive winners of the two parties it leaves many Americans clueless as to who to vote for. On the right, the Cruz supporters who yelled #NeverTrump are looking almost as foolish as Bernie's economic plans. On the left, the Bernie supporters who yelled #NeverHillary are looking almost as foolish as Trump's wall. Which begs the questions: who should I vote for and what does it mean to waste my vote?
The right will start screaming that if you don't support Trump you're giving Hillary the victory. Inversely, the left will shriek if you don't vote Hillary, you're going to let our country be ruined by Trump and his bigotry. But as the great Jerry Garcia once said "Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil". Trump and Hillary are two of the most polarizing candidates to ever represent America. Each candidate is so passionately disliked by the majority of voters it seems that the winner is going to be which candidate is least disliked instead of which candidate is most liked. Now, I'm not going to pretend like Libertarians can come and steal the hype away from Trump and Hillary and win the presidency - but what we can do is affect change that will never leave us in such a predicament as we find ourselves now.
If you mention voting Libertarian to the layman (if they even know what the word means) you will most likely find yourself answering the question, "Well isn't voting for a third party a wasted vote?" As we continue to improve our messaging problem, you will be able to convince others that a vote for principle is never a wasted vote. Conversely, it is actually the only vote that is not wasted. When you decide to choose the lesser of two evils, you are sending a message to Washington that you do not care how terrible the candidates are you will fall in line, and vote for the party you are aligned with. Or you will vote for whoever displays more audacity in the general debates, regardless of that individual's policies. When you look deeply into policies taken by both Democrats and Republicans in recent years then you will see a "bipartisan" Republicrat regime where government spending always increases, taxes keep going up, and wars are endless. Yeah, this whole 'just vote for the lesser of two evils' thing is really not working out well.
When you vote Libertarian, or for any third party in general, you send the message that you will no longer support this corrupted, Republicrat control over politics. Whether the Libertarian Party gets the 5% we need for government funding during the elections or not, a vote for the candidate with an L by his name will breed better results. The message can be received by either party - if they want to continue to get reelected - that they will need the support from the Libertarian community to win. For Democrats maybe they will finally consider the legalization of all drugs and other social issues Libertarians hold close. As for Republicans, maybe we can finally get the smaller government they've been promising us for years. But, again, this is not a short term solution and will not stop a Trump or Hillary presidency, but in 2020 and onward our choices will only continue to improve.
We need to get both the disillusioned Cruz supporters and the disillusioned Bernie supporters if we want to continue this journey to take the government over to leave everybody alone. With Cruz supporters and other #NeverTrump Republicans we can soothe them with our ideas of a constitutionally small government, lower taxes, less regulations, and all of our other fiscally conservative ideas. Whereas with Bernie supporters and other #NeverHillary Democrats, we need to focus on too much money being in politics, high incarceration rates, gay marriage, legalizing drugs, and all of our other socially liberal ideas. We can appeal to either party - or fight with either party - but if we want to spread the message of Liberty - personal and economic freedom - then we need to start with ideas we all can agree on before moving to a more radical Libertarian point of view. If you don't vote for a third party you are essentially voting for evil - a sure way to waste your precious vote.
The right will start screaming that if you don't support Trump you're giving Hillary the victory. Inversely, the left will shriek if you don't vote Hillary, you're going to let our country be ruined by Trump and his bigotry. But as the great Jerry Garcia once said "Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil". Trump and Hillary are two of the most polarizing candidates to ever represent America. Each candidate is so passionately disliked by the majority of voters it seems that the winner is going to be which candidate is least disliked instead of which candidate is most liked. Now, I'm not going to pretend like Libertarians can come and steal the hype away from Trump and Hillary and win the presidency - but what we can do is affect change that will never leave us in such a predicament as we find ourselves now.
If you mention voting Libertarian to the layman (if they even know what the word means) you will most likely find yourself answering the question, "Well isn't voting for a third party a wasted vote?" As we continue to improve our messaging problem, you will be able to convince others that a vote for principle is never a wasted vote. Conversely, it is actually the only vote that is not wasted. When you decide to choose the lesser of two evils, you are sending a message to Washington that you do not care how terrible the candidates are you will fall in line, and vote for the party you are aligned with. Or you will vote for whoever displays more audacity in the general debates, regardless of that individual's policies. When you look deeply into policies taken by both Democrats and Republicans in recent years then you will see a "bipartisan" Republicrat regime where government spending always increases, taxes keep going up, and wars are endless. Yeah, this whole 'just vote for the lesser of two evils' thing is really not working out well.
When you vote Libertarian, or for any third party in general, you send the message that you will no longer support this corrupted, Republicrat control over politics. Whether the Libertarian Party gets the 5% we need for government funding during the elections or not, a vote for the candidate with an L by his name will breed better results. The message can be received by either party - if they want to continue to get reelected - that they will need the support from the Libertarian community to win. For Democrats maybe they will finally consider the legalization of all drugs and other social issues Libertarians hold close. As for Republicans, maybe we can finally get the smaller government they've been promising us for years. But, again, this is not a short term solution and will not stop a Trump or Hillary presidency, but in 2020 and onward our choices will only continue to improve.
We need to get both the disillusioned Cruz supporters and the disillusioned Bernie supporters if we want to continue this journey to take the government over to leave everybody alone. With Cruz supporters and other #NeverTrump Republicans we can soothe them with our ideas of a constitutionally small government, lower taxes, less regulations, and all of our other fiscally conservative ideas. Whereas with Bernie supporters and other #NeverHillary Democrats, we need to focus on too much money being in politics, high incarceration rates, gay marriage, legalizing drugs, and all of our other socially liberal ideas. We can appeal to either party - or fight with either party - but if we want to spread the message of Liberty - personal and economic freedom - then we need to start with ideas we all can agree on before moving to a more radical Libertarian point of view. If you don't vote for a third party you are essentially voting for evil - a sure way to waste your precious vote.