Voting Libertarian splits the conservative vote and increases the likelihood of Obama winning. That's a bad thing, if you believe Obama is evil, which I do.
Don't forget, voting for Ralph Nader put George W in office. If it hadn't been for Nader, Gore would have won Florida.
Casting a symbolic vote for a third party candidate, who can't win, is a wasted vote. There are no perfect candidates. Voting for Gary Johnson is just voting for the lesser of three evils.
Originally Posted by joe bloe
Voting Libertarian is not splitting conservative vote. Conservative does not describe libertarian. To be libertarian is to be for small non invasive government. The republican party doesn't stand for those things.
While I agree in principal that Al Gore was not a good choice. I also do not believe that George W turned out to be a good choice.
It is not a symbolic vote to vote for the best candidate. That is the line of fear that is used to keep this crappy 2 party system in place. If no one is gullible enough to buy into it, the system will crash. History has proven this.
The republican party calls itself the "Grand Old Party" it really isn't. The party is only 158 years old. It grew out of the remnants of the Whig party. The whig party failed when split over the issue of slavery.
If you go back far enough you will find that both the Democrats and the Republicans can trace their parties roots back to Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic- Republican Party. This party split into the Whigs and the Democrats during the time of Andrew Jackson. The whigs would then fail and the Republican party rose from the ashes.
In addition the Democratic- Republican Party grew out of a political faction called the anti-administration party aka the anti-federalists. This is a group of people who largely opposed the ratification of the US constitution. Amazing how both of the key parties of modern times can trace their roots to a group of people who opposed the constitution.
There opposition was based on the federalist belief in implied powers and strong central government. Oh how far they have come from those beliefs.
The beliefs of the libertarian party are much closer to that of the beginnings of this political party. I have said in other posts. The democrats took the social freedom agenda as a campaign tool but will never push for social freedom when they have the ability too and will blame Republicans when they don't. (Gay Marriage could have easily been passed during the first 2 years but they were to busy with taking economic freedoms to improve social freedoms.)
Republicans are the same way, they took the economic freedom route but they do not choose to improve this when they have the chance, sure they will make things easier for the rich when they are in power but screw everyone else. Then when they can not do it on their own they blame the democrats.
This is the system you choose to support by voting for the guy you hate the least.