Answer this question for me... Options

[*kryogenix*]

I've approached some people with the question, Why John Kerry, even when you acknowlege that he's a lousy candidate? They reply "He's not George Bush. Anyone but Bush."

Well, Ralph Nader isn't George Bush. Michael Badnarik is not George Bush. Why not vote for them?

Most reply, "Because they won't win."

I thought the reason we vote was because we wanted the candidate with the closest ideals to ours to be elected. Not because we wanted to vote for the winning candidate.

Responses?

[ComradeRed]

I've approached some people with the question, Why John Kerry, even when you acknowlege that he's a lousy candidate? They reply "He's not George Bush. Anyone but Bush."

Well, Ralph Nader isn't George Bush. Michael Badnarik is not George Bush. Why not vote for them?

Most reply, "Because they won't win."

I thought the reason we vote was because we wanted the candidate with the closest ideals to ours to be elected. Not because we wanted to vote for the winning candidate.

Responses?

Yes that is correct -- people should vote for the person they believe in most.

Unfortunately, this is impossible in our current system where a failure of a canddiate to achieve a majority of the electoral vote throws the election to the House. We should change our system to Instant Runoff Voting among four candidates (or even three) instead of the system we have now, to encourage people to vote their conscience since their vote will no longe be wasted.

However, it is inaccurate to say that this is a Democrat phenomena -- in a poll done by Rasmussen earlier this year of New Mexico voters (This was comissioned by the Libertarian Party of New Mexico) -- if the election was exactly tied and you cast the deciding vote and coudl decide who would become the next president, who would you vote for? The choices were Kerry, Badnarik, and Bush -- the result had Kerry ahead with 34%, Bush had 31%, and Badnarik had 26%. 9% were other or undecided. Many, many Republicans dislike Bush enough to vote for Badnarik or Michael Peroutka (www.peroutka2004.com) but will not because they are afraid that Kerry will win. Polls prove conclusively that nearly 30% of Republicans do not approve strongly of Bush -- yet most of them will still vote for Bush. There is hypocrisy on both sides, which is caused by our ridiculous campaign finance laws (remember Perot in 1992) and single-choice voting.