doubleplusundead

July 31, 2008

Paulbots seek to elect the most statist candidate in U.S. history

This, my dear, is what I call Grade-A nuance:

Dueling delegations pitting Ron Paul's Nevada supporters against those of John McCain vow to take their fight to the Republican National Convention.
That's just one sign that the outsider, Internet-fueled movement led by the feisty Republican congressman from Texas remains afloat in the wake of McCain's victory in the GOP primaries.
In the libertarian-leaning West, where Paul's message of distrust of the federal government and ardent individualism played particularly well, there is talk of Republicans straying from McCain. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr has emerged as a favorite alternative for Paul activists, followed by Constitutional Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.
[...]
"In Nevada, there's absolutely enough to have an effect on the election," said Chuck Muth, a leading conservative activist in a state in which early polls show McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama in a statistical tie.

I know I'm going to catch hell from the libertarians amongst us, but I never understood the draw of voting third party. Personally, I couldn't live with the guilt of contributing to an Obama presidency.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:10 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 189 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Just a stylistic note, if you want the Paulbots to descend, you have to say their Hero's name three times, much like Beetlejuice or Candyman.

Posted by: Veeshir at July 31, 2008 02:05 PM (zXUuJ)

2 As one of the Libertarians here--
It's not a question of how bad Obama is.
It's a question of how bad McCain and the GOP is.
To put it in a nutshell, McCain would be just as bad as Obama--not on the same things, but in other ways..
(Think of this for a moment: given McCain's record in the Senate, do you have any grounds, beyond speechifying during this campaign, to believe he would not compromise or completely cave on anything the Democrats come up with?)
Voting third party is also a way of putting the GOP on notice that conservatives don't like how the GOP has been disporting itself over the last several years.
There's also the fact that most of the Libertarians and Paulistas view the Iraq war as a bad idea all around, and agree with Obama's stated purpose of getting out of Iraq and focusing on Afghanistan; and if they don't agree with Obama's other foreign policy ideas, it's usally because those ideas are too mainstream or at least too similar to McCain's, not bcause he differs from them. They also tend to take a "leftie" position on stuff like FISA, where Obama clearly leans towards their positions and McCain doesn't.
What it boils down, however, is the simple fact that Libertarians feel the GOP has become just as statist as the Democrats, and the only real difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum is that one is young, has an exotic name, and has charisma, while the other doesn't.

Posted by: kishnevi at July 31, 2008 04:38 PM (0vNaM)

3 Yeah ... yeah. I haven't voted 3rd party yet, but I'm close. If we all use the "a vote for a third party is a vote for the opponent" rationale forever, nothing will ever change. It has to stop somewhere, and principles should play a part in your voting habits.

Posted by: Joseph at July 31, 2008 07:06 PM (PzAVj)

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