Answer this question for me... Options

[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.

[Retrogressive]

It's the same way for democrats-- they might want to vote for someone else, but they are afriad Bush will win. At least with my family.

[lilazneye10]

i would pick kerry over bush not that i lyke kerry

[*kryogenix*]

i would pick kerry over bush not that i lyke kerry

try to make your posts a little more intelligent sounding at least. you've been spamming. your posts don't contribute to the topic at all.

[*tweeak*]

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?

its not that you want to vote for the winning canidate, its because voting for an independant party will not get you anywhere. if you acknowlage that a canidate is bad, then youd prefer them not to win, so its more important to take the votes away from the one you dont like, ie george bush. despite the other canidates being preferable, there is still a large percentage of the nation that refuses to acknowlage any party but the main two- democratic and republican. despite having the freedom to vote for whomever in whatever party you choose, it is in reality still a race between the two main parties. my typo earlier led me to the conlusion- they, remocrats as they shall now be collaberatively called, are aginst all the smaller parties, and as they are bigger, they will always crush them. the debates are against only shrub and kerry, so it is implied to the nation that they are the only ones that matter, especially as nadar is not even on the ballot anymore, but a write-in. micky mouse has as good of a chance to win as he does now. so, while you think you are doing good voting a better party, you are practiacally not voting at all.

[Alternativemado]

When i turn 18 which will be in 2 years and when the next election comes a long anf there is a green party candidate running i am voting for them. I am not democratioc not republican but i lean more fore democrat.