Gone Votin'

Be back tomorrow. I know some of you are wondering, so I thought I'd break my tradition of ambiguity and key you in on how I'm voting this year.

I figure if I can't have the candidate I want, I can at least keep my integrity.

Have you ever been faced with a situation in business where the available options at a given decision point were unacceptable? How did you deal with it? Did you go along with what everyone said you had to do, or did you blaze your own path? - Cam Beck

Comments

[Michael Lombardi]

I often struggle with the idea of voting for the best candidate versus the one more likely to win, i.e. if 12 different parties are represented on a presidential ballot should I go Democrat, Republican, or an alternative party?

So far I always choose the lesser of two evils because I know Americans aren't electing a Green-party or Libertarian or whatever candidate.

[Cam Beck]

Michael - Thanks for your contribution.

I'm reminded of admonition not to vote, because it only encourages them (Will Rogers?).

I once again came to the realization, as I do from time to time, that as long as people compromise important principles to achieve a calculated electoral result (a process I call "vote-egery"), they will give rise to people who believe those principles *have* no importance.

If they do it consistently, they will encourage the rise of classes of people who desire to subvert those principles as a matter of policy, since they put either no or a negative value on them.

That's where I feel we are now, and why we are faced with the choices we have. I've just decided to not play that game anymore. When they lose, they'll get the picture.

And when the worst of them win, the people who enthusiastically supported them will eventually get the picture -- when they see the results of the policies of the politicians they supported.

Sometimes you need a James Buchanan to understand the value of an Abe Lincoln.

[Michael Lombardi]

Cam,
To the same point, I don't think we've had a great president in years. Most who don't say Clinton, would surely say Reagan.

I'd take the unpopular vote and actually say the last great was Eisenhower. (That's right, not even JFK--although he might have been had things turned out differently.)

[Cam Beck]

Michael - It's gone downhill since Washington, IMO. Of course, he was also the only President to ever receive a unanimous vote of electors.

His willingness (eagerness?) to relinquish the power he was granted has never been duplicated. Parties maneuvering for control of power has prevented a widespread rational discussion of politics in the public sphere.

[Michael Lombardi]

I hope the folks at the Internet Archive are paying attention; it seems we've had the first comment on the Internet so far in '08 that couldn't be disputed.

Excellent comment.