Shopping for a party

Well it’s official, most of my friends and relatives think I’m either crazy or just wrong. About what you might ask. Well it seems my decision to not vote Republican or Democrat this year has gotten everyone to thinking that I’m wasting my vote. My Republican friends want to know how I can turn my back on my party and not vote for McCain. They seem to feel that by not backing McCain I’ve decided to back Obama. My Democrat friends, I don’t really have too many of those, but I have tons of Democrat family members, seem to think the same thing. Some of my Democrat family members don’t understand why I’m a Republican, or so conservative for that matter. So I’ve spent the last few days, since making my decision to vote either Libertarian or Constitution, defending my decision from all would be suitors.

Why have I chosen to vote third party? Well that’s actually a tough question to answer. Until recently I had never even heard of the Libertarian party. In fact I was pretty clueless about the plethora of political parties out there. I was floored when I looked at the various parties in my county alone, and started doing the research on them. For instance Florida has a British Reformed Sectarian Party. Now this guy is a total nut and his party is beyond racist. One of the actual requirements for joining is that you can’t be black. This is right from their website. “As stated in our Constitution and By-laws filed with the Florida Secretary of State, we do not allow Black people to join our party and you also have to be a Christian.” Now what kind of Christian doesn’t like black people? This guy will probably want to move if Obama wins. We also have the American Poor People Party (they don’t have a website), the Boston Tea Party of Florida (they also don’t have a site), and the Possibility Party (their website needs an overhaul). Needless to say I had quite a choice to make.

So on the advice of a friend I took the “Are you a Libertarian” test (I scored a 35, which makes me a moderate Libertarian). Now don’t worry I didn’t base my choice to vote Libertarian on a silly test, I based it solely on the candidate this election. It seems the Libertarian party has gotten themselves an ex-Republican to run on the ticket. After learning this I went to the Bob Barr 2008 website and started reading. Once I was done looking over Mr. Barr’s list of issues I went to several other sites that documented how he’d voted in the past. Now anyone who has read this blog before knows I’m against abortion, and while that may not be my top reason for voting for a person, it is high up there. Mr. Barr has a record of voting conservatively and in favor of life. In addition Mr. Barr voted against this recent bailout mess. In all honesty, his views seem to align nicely with my own in most cases.

Now more informed, I decided to look into another party that caught my attention, the Constitution party. I don’t know much about Dr. Chuck Baldwin, except for what’s on his website. From what I can read he is a pastor, and has a talk radio show in Florida. While I do like his stance on many of the issues on his site, his lack of experience is what bothers me. It is true that Washington does need a change, and it is possible that bringing in an outsider would be good for the country, but I honestly don’t feel that the time is right for that just yet. This country is embroiled in several major arenas at once. On the one hand we have a war and economic issues, which require experience and leadership. On the other hand we have partisan issues, which require someone with more political savvy than usual to solve. While I personally like Chuck Baldwin, and what he stands for, I am worried that someone without any Washington experience will simply get derailed, and that is not what this country needs right now.

It’s at this point that most of my friends and relatives chime in with “Why not just vote Republican or Democrat?” Well to be totally honest I don’t like either politician. I don’t really feel that either one will bring the kind of change this country needs to get back on track. In fact I feel that the recent bailout bill showed that Washington proper is out of touch with the people. In my opinion Washington regulars are living in their own little world secure and separated from the ills that plague this country. This latest vote proved it. Just as Congress was all set to vote yes, the people spoke and flooded their representatives with enough complaints to keep some of them from going along with the corporate welfare program, which would have only stalled the problem.

Do I believe Barr is any different? Yes I do. I’d like to think he left the Republican Party in disgust over the out of control spending, and meddling in other nations, which has begun the breakdown of our way of life. One of the things I most agree with the Libertarian party on is spending. Americans are always being told to keep their debt in check, don’t spend more than you have… Why should the government be any different? Are government standards different because government prints the money? Doesn’t making more money just cheapen the value of the dollar?

In effect I have chosen to expand my horizons. I have chosen to look outside the normal box. Does my vote not count? In my opinion my vote is only wasted if I don’t make use of it. As more and more Americans wake up to the realization that their elected officials either don’t care, or are too busy caring about making money, they too will begin to look elsewhere. My vote will not go to further the pockets of greedy banks, and wall street tycoons. My vote will not go to expand the role of government in our lives, or expand our role oversees. My vote will go to a party I can at least see eye to eye with, in the hopes that maybe they will remember that this is supposed to be government by the people for the people and not government for government.

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -- John Quincy Adams