Gray Court Musing

Third Party Voting

When did today's commonly accepted view of the unelectibilty of third party candidates begin? I can't put my finger on it but I think its a relatively recent phenomenon.

Go back to 1968. George Wallace ran on a third party ticket and won 5 states. Apparently the voters in 1968 had a very different definition of "wasting your vote" than the voters of 2008, yes? So when and why did people start using this phrase about third parties? When did the statement "He represents what I believe in" get replaced by the question "Can he win?" Could it simply be that most voters just don't believe in anything anymore? Is that what the word "postmodern" really means?

No..I think that the majority of the people that use this phrase are what I'm going to call "Cowardly Conservatives". They are so afraid of a liberal getting elected that they simply vote for the non-liberal who they think has the best chance of getting elected. Whether or not this non-liberal represents their worldview is irrelevant to them. They only want to negate what they are afraid of instead of embracing what they believe in. And each time they do this the candidate who is elected is more liberal than the one before him. Poppy Bush was more liberal than Reagan, Clinton more liberal than Poppy, George W. more liberal than Clinton and now these cowardly conservatives are going to vote for John McCain, more liberal than George W. Because a non-liberal is not a conservative, each election sees a shift to the left in the candidates who are elected. This shift is so gradual that no one seems to notice it but it is very real. Go back to 1960: both 1960 Kennedy and Nixon are far to the right of all of the candidates (except Ron Paul) who ran for the Republican nomination this year. In fact, John McCain 2008 would probably be considered on the far left of most Democrats of 1960. As long as the Cowardly Conservatives refuse to vote for a conservative, the shift will continue. It would probably be better for the country if these people just didn't vote at all. That way, the Republican Party would start finishing third every election and eventually go the way of the Whig, which is where they came from in the first place!

"Wasting your vote": what is it? It is voting for someone who will not represent you if elected. Every person who ascribes to a Christian worldview and votes for John McCain is wasting their vote. John McCain does not and will not represent anyone who is a believer in Jesus Christ. The heathen never waste their vote. Barack Obama will faithfully represent the heathen worldview and this is why they will vote for him. Why those who have the mind of Christ have lost their mind every presidential election since 1988 is a question that remains unanswered.

posted by Veritas @ 4:11 AM