>From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@turbont.net>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: GUNS: Why here?
>Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 14:54:40 -0400
>
>Bush many not be much better, but he's more of the
>'lesser evil' type candidate, because he is for preserving our individual
>ability to defend our liberty, even though he may not be for every
>individual liberty we support. While someone like Harry Browne comes closer
>than most every other candidate to most extropian values, his practical
>ability to win the election is about as good as a blind quadrapelegics
>chance of hitting a bull's butt with a bass fiddle, and Gore actually has a
>decent risk of winning this election despite himself. In this case its
>rather obvious what a 'rational' choice to make is for an extropian: put
>Bush in the white house.
This is not originally my observation or argument, but it's a very good
point.
The most successful third party to ever exist was the socialist party. They
never won a major election, but the points they were pushing ealy in this
century are supported by both the democrats and republicans today, some of
which is very good and most of which is very bad (we have social security,
legalized birth control, a graduated income tax, a union-friendly
government, a minimum wage.. etc. I'm not sure which of these were official
Socialist positions but I'm sure they are all things most Socialists of the
period would have supported or been concerned about). If people had voted
consistenly for major parties, this would not have happened. And if a
Libertarian candidate consistently got 3%-10% of the vote, and if (s)he ever
broke the double digits, this certainly would lead to a Libertarianization
of both wings of the Republicrat party. If you voted for Browne, you would
be contributing to this. I'd say that realistically I wouldn't even expect
him to get 1% of the vote. Nevertheless, one individual's vote for him is
another grain of sand on the scale. Your vote may be worth 0.0001% of the
future policies of the main parties.
Voting for either of the two main parties however, has absolutely zero
influence. If you vote for Bush or Gore, your vote is 100% worthless
and there's not even the slightest remotest chance it will contribute to
anything. If your vote were the deciding vote, the vote would be close
enough that it would go to congress and they would decide it.
---------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon (zebharadon@hotmail.com)
My personal webpage:
http://www.inconnect.com/~zharadon/ubunix
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
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