Throwing my vote away
I grow increasingly more frustrated with the "common wisdom" that voting for anybody but the top two clowns is "throwing my vote away." This seems to assume that the only measure of a vote's value is whether your candidate wins.
By this logic, if I vote for Romney, and Obama wins (or vice versa) then I will have thrown my vote away.
I firmly believe that that if everyone in this nation dispensed with this fiction and actually voted what they believe, we would see a repudiation of the voice of Washington, and actually hear the voice of the people.
We, the people of the United States of America, are sick of the government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy. So why do we keep voting for them? Why do we keep voting for the two parties who have consistently given us a government that doesn't actually represent what we seem to want and believe?
Because people tell us that voting for the candidates we actually believe in is "throwing our vote away."
I firmly believe that voting for a candidate I don't support is throwing my vote away. If voting is indeed the ultimate expression of free speech, then voting for a candidate I do not support is lying.
People keep asking me why I would consider throwing my vote away. I find this baffling. Why would I consider voting for a candidate I don't support?
People keep saying that "voting for a third party is in fact voting for Obama." This is patently nonsense. It is true only if I agree that the only thing that matters is the winner. I do not believe this. I believe that my voice matters. If I am the only voice in a crowd expressing my perspective, then surely I should speak louder, not throw my lot in with voices I disagree with.
The current incarnation of the Republican party (which seems to have little to do with its historical roots) has created the current economic crisis. The current incarnation of the Democratic party hasn't done a lot to solve it.
We spend an immoral amount of money on war. Killing and destruction seems to be the major purpose of our empire, as evidenced by where we put our money. A vote for the status quo is a vote to continue wars in Afghanistan, and start one in Iran. I cannot support that. I cannot lend my voice to a course of action that I fundamentally repudiate.
That would be throwing my vote away.