ephemera

clapifyoulikeme:

jwisser:

Matt Bors

If this does in fact bother you, consider supporting Gary Johnson as the Libertarian candidate for president in 2012.

I support this message. Unless you live in a swing state, in which case please recognize that a third-party candidate is not going to win this year and that even if he does suck, a second Obama term is a lot better than a first Romney one.

I appreciate what you’re saying and where you’re coming from. I do. But I’m not convinced that what you’re saying is true. Under Obama, we’ve legalised the indefinite detention and unilateral assassination of American citizens. Under Obama, I haven’t seen a great deal of support for the right to choose—please correct me if I’m wrong—and his support for Roe v. Wade seems based on the fact that it is law, rather than the fact that women should have the right to choose. Under the Obama administration, we have seen young women denied access to Plan B. Obama has refused to come out in favour of gay marriage, despite repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. President Obama’s record has been that of a moderate Republican—as long as you’re willing to define moderate as “slightly to the left of the current Republican field of candidates”, which is an absolutely absurd definition of the word when the entire field is made up of radical anti-Constitutional conservatives.

In a race between Obama and any potential Republican nominee (except perhaps for Ron Paul), the evidence suggests that the Republican will lose far more votes to Johnson than Obama. Given that Obama already wins the majority of polls placing him in opposition to Romney, I’m far from convinced that there’s a “lesser of two evils” argument to be made for voting for Obama. [EDIT: The latter is no longer necessarily true. Yikes. That’s worth keeping an eye on.]

If more Americans researched candidates and voted their consciences, especially in Congressional races, we wouldn’t be in this godawful position to begin with. As it is, we are, and I intend to vote for the person who doesn’t think that my Constitutional rights are a meaningless infringement on his rights as the head of my government.