J. Neil Schulman: Why This Libertarian Is Voting to Re-elect George W. Bush
When I became a voter I gave up casting my ballot symbolically in any race in which I believed my ballot stood any chance whatsoever in effecting a preferable outcome. Purists have told me for years that “the lesser of two evils is still evil.” I have learned to counter that argument with one taught to me by libertarian author Brad Linaweaver: “the lesser of two evils is less evil.”
You’d think a guy who has written sf novels would surprise us once in a while. Every cycle it’s the same song: sure, it would be nice to elect a libertarian, but this time it’s vitally important to support the second-worst candidate, so as to defeat the worst. (To his slight credit, he changed his tune late in the campaign of 1996, when Bob Dole went too far in supporting victim disarmament.)
George W. Bush has correctly concluded that this war can’t be won by even the most draconian assaults on our personal liberties in an attempt to create an impregnable “Fortress America,” and he has instead decided to remove the war from New York City and Washington DC back to the region that spawned and supports the Islamic crusaders [sic]. In the long run, the only way to win is to go on the offensive, because no static territorial defense is ever perfect or permanent.
When did Bush decide to abandon domestic repression? — Ironically, that last sentence can be read as advocating a vote for a “no hope” candidate. If you concentrate on the short run and vote as he does, you guarantee that next election will also be between two flavors of evil, and so on forever. Why should any candidate renounce evil, when evil gets the votes?
In his twenty years in the Senate, John F. Kerry never met a gun-control bill he didn’t eagerly support. George W. Bush, in his first term as governor of Texas, legalized civilian carrying of concealed firearms . . and as president not a single law harmful to gun owners has received his signature.
Nor has any act odious to freedom failed to get Bush’s signature. If this Congress has neglected to pass any new gun-control bills, why give Bush the credit?
We can hope that Schulman would vote his conscience if only one of the leading candidates were evil; but he’s doing his bit to ensure that we’ll never find out.
Hypocrisy Disclosure Notice. I have not registered to vote since I moved in 1997, because I no longer judged the symbolic pleasure of voting for sure losers to be worth telling the State where I sleep.