There used to be a time where I could, without guilt, vote for Republicans as the lesser of two evils. The thought of John Kerry sitting in the White House frightened me, and I was able to vote for Bush in 2004 and be reasonably certain that I did the country a favor. I don’t regret that vote, but I certainly won’t be repeating it.
It’s not that I’m on a high horse and consider voting for the lesser of two evils to be weak-principled. Until we get a better system that allows for preference voting, I recognize that voters will have to compromise. It’s not even that I think that either party has a great advantage in the polls, so my vote won’t matter. The country is as divided now as it has ever been.
The reason I can no longer vote for Republicans as the lesser of two evils is that I’ve begun to seriously doubt that they are the lesser of two evils.
I’ve come to see that Republicans are two-faced. On paper, Republicans are easily more favorable than Democrats to a libertarian-minded person such as myself. On paper, they support lower taxes, less socialism, limited government, a rigid interpretation of the Constitution, property rights, parental rights and gun rights. In practice, they do little to permanently relieve the tax burden, they support wealth redistribution in a variety of forms, they’ve bloated the government to an unprecedented degree, they’ve made a mockery of Amendments One, Four, Six, Eight and Ten, they’ve been slow and inadequate in their response to the Supreme Court’s eminent domain decision. That leaves parental rights and gun rights. So if all you want to do is to teach your kid that God created the world in seven 24-hour periods or shoot empty beer cans for fun, the Republican Party has your back. Otherwise, it’s time to wake up and realize you’ve been duped.
It’s largely the Republicans [who] have vamped up the Drug War, and who have regretfully expanded it even into doctor’s offices, where drug warriors now decide what courses of treatment are and aren’t acceptable. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez [sic] recently stated that under his watch, eradicating pornography will be a priority on par with fighting terrorism. And several members of Congress are now pushing to expand FCC regulation to include cable TV, satellite radio, and perhaps even the Internet, all in an effort to protect Americans from bad words and dirty pictures. — FOX News
Not only do they abandon their principles and encroach upon American freedoms, Republicans have also shown themselves to be active members of the culture of political corruption.
Steve Verdon over at Outside the Beltway, upon hearing that Bush acted to seal documents seized from the office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) in connection with a bribery investigation, put it bluntly: “all I have to say is, only 971 days till Bush is history.”
In response to Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) completely transparent defense of Rep. Jefferson, Jim Geraghty at National Review Online wrote, “At this moment, I completely understand the anger of the Tapscottians, those who are content to see a GOP majority fall. Although honestly, at this moment, I don’t want to wait until November to see this kind of behavior punished.”
Republicans had a chance to use their majority to advance the cause of freedom. I don’t know if they merely squandered it or if they were lying from the start. Either way, our country deserves better.
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Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
Gardner Goldsmith explains why claims by politicians that consumers can become "irrational" and why claims by the same politicians that government can help "fix" markets are both false and misleading. He also explains what the terms Praxeology and Epistemology mean, which is key in understanding how to place free markets in their proper place among human history.
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Michael Hampton
May 25, 2006
I have to disagree with your implication that one needs to vote for the lesser of two evils. Voters don’t have to compromise to get freedom. They just have to express a desire for it at the ballot box! It’s the fact that over 100 million of them don’t do so, because they’re deathly afraid of “the other guy,” that got us into this mess.
Remember that after every election, the winner will come out and say he’s received a “mandate from the people.” What that means is that when you vote, you aren’t voting AGAINST someone, you’re voting FOR someone. If you thought you were voting AGAINST John Kerry, well, that’s not the way the politicians see it. They only see your votes FOR them.
That’s why it’s absolutely vital that people vote FOR what they want, and NOT AGAINST what they don’t want.
May 25, 2006
First Entry at “Homeland Stupidity” [ Tempus Fugit | TxFx.net ]
Mark Jaquith
May 26, 2006
It’s a short term vs long term thing. In the long term, you’re probably better off asking for what you really want… but in the meantime, that vote can make things worse.
I’m just saying that I understand why people don’t want to go through the inevitable Democratic domination that would happen if Republican voters started jumping ship to other parties. The problem, as I see it, is with our system of voting that puts people into this dilemma. Unless everyone can be convinced to jump all at once, there will be unavoidable negative short-term consequences. With a preference-vote system, former Republican voters could vote Libertarian as their first choice, but back it up with a failsafe vote. That would empower alternative parties and really diversify political debate.
Lenny Zimmermann
May 26, 2006
I can’t say that I could have ever felt safe voting Republican (well, except in one situation, sorta.) And no way I could have ever voted for Bush, as it seemed to me that even during his first term his meglomaniacal grab for executive power was just inexcusable. It seems to me that even back in the Reagan era Republicans always struck me as overly concerned with fundamental Christian values (and getting everyone else to accept those values) far, far more than they were ever concerned with economic freedoms. At least Democrats would flat tell you they wanted to take your money to expand government… (well sorta, since we really should consider that Clinton really did reduce the defecit, no matter what other faults the man may have had.) Republicans always struck me as willing to pay lip-service to fiscal responsibility, but not really backing it up with their actions. In all that told me they would be far bigger meddlers in our personal freedoms then the Democrats ever had been, and that they would be even more willing to baldfaced lie about what they were really doing.
Then again I’ve always felt that our civil liberties were the are we most need to watch for against government intervention and, other than gun rights, the Dems have tended to have a better record there. Admittedly they’ve made some big-time screw-ups in the name of those liberties and equal rights, but at leas they always seemed more willing to look for real answers to problems. Too bad they can’t always admit that thier social programs just haven’t worked and that government is not really the best answer. At any rate I’ve always felt that a free people would work to ensure a relatively free market, but a free market would not necessarily make for a free people.
I like David Brin’s expressions on where I think many Libertarians may have deluded themselves about Republicans (or at least where Cato seems to continue deluding itself about Republican virutes) in this blog post: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/05/cato-hypocrisy.html
Don;t get me wrong, there are some Republicans I would have no problems voting for, but they are very, very few. (Folks like Ron Paul.) Not that Dems are any better, mind you, but given no other choices at the ballot I’ve often found myself accepting the Dem positions on issues to be a tad more palatable. That “flip-flop” thing just tells me that at least some of them are willing and open to admitting when they were wrong.
Jason
May 28, 2006
Things I don’t understand about this post.
1) “Two” evils? (aren’t we a multi-party nation? oh wait, I forgot…)
Well, that’s about it I guess. The point of this post was completely lost on me as soon as I got through the first paragraph.
I know I got my mom to vote Green in the 2000 elections (seeing as I was 15, I was a bit more naive about certain things). So… why are we talking about 2 again?
Mark Jaquith
May 28, 2006
How about “lesser of two currently viable options?” Consider that I’m directing this at people who are voting for Republicans out of a “lesser of two evils” mindset. The Libertarian Party gains the majority of its members from the Republican party. As the Republican party moves further and further way from libertarian thought, more people should jump ship.
Michael Hampton
May 28, 2006
Well, the LP hasn’t yet figured out how to tailor their message to those who normally vote Democrat because they believe in various types of social issues — never realizing that by voting for EITHER of the two parties, they only guarantee that those issues will get worse.
May 29, 2006
Mind of Mog
Jun 05, 2006
5 GigaWatt Lizard » Confessions of a Republican Defector (Wonders Never Cease Pt 1)
Joey Chestnut
Jul 16, 2006
You are a goddamned fool.
John
Sep 13, 2006
As long as the Democrats are in power next time round, I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief.
Joey
Dec 14, 2006
Ok my look on this subject i would much rather a liberalist be in office more than anything because i like the fact they have many many points of views anbout the economy and war and rights of all sorts and the fact they are for the people and just not for money and power like the concervs are now they dont like gay rights and they love the fact that people can might as well walk around with guns all over there body and shoot the local kid so screw that and as for george bush he has made some bad decisions but i dont even want to start on him and as for john kerry you didnt even give him a chance to prove he knows his shit.