Political Party Quiz

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(05-19-2015, 07:43 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: By not voting you have even less of a say in the election. Someone told me a few years ago that you should vote for the person you would like to see in office, and if there is no candidate that you like, always vote a write-in. When you don't vote there is nothing counted for you on the ballot in that category. So, an example.

Candidate A and Candidate B for a House race. Both suck, but A is the incumbent. There is a minority, maybe 12% that do not like either one. Here is how things look if...

They do not vote:
Candidate A - 75%
Candidate B - 25%

They vote a write in:
Candidate A - 65%
Candidate B - 23%
Write-ins - 12%

Because of the change in those numbers it makes a statement that people are tired of the same old crap. Yeah, it may not make any difference to the two major party candidates that suck, but there may be an Independent or third party type sitting there noticing this that decides to throw money into the next race. If people don't vote in this situation then no one sees that there is frustration because no votes are counted in that way. All Candidate A sees is a huge win, not the 12% that are dissatisfied.

I have written in so many candidates and the occasional "no confidence", it's not even funny at this point.

(05-19-2015, 09:14 AM)xxlt Wrote: Well, my buddy has a PhD in Philosophy and he agrees with you, that voting for an unelectable candidate is absolutely the right thing to do. He'd vote for fictional characters Norm Peterson, Duff Man, or Billy Jack before he would vote for the Democratic or Republican nominee. He is fully cognizant that Peterson, Man, or Jack could never be elected. So, I guess you brilliant guys have your club, and I salute you. However, I am more of a pragmatist. If A is 96% evil and B is 95.75% evil and I am condemned to live under rule of A or B I would vote B every time under the principle that I had chosen less evil and if enough people did the same thing cycle after cycle we could in the short term and the long reduce the evil under which we were living.

I hear ya man, I really do.....but I'm so disgusted by the duopoly, I just can't, in good conscience, vote for them.

However, by your rationale, if everyone just voted third party instead of watching campaign ads, couldn't we strike down the tyranny even sooner?

A prime example of this is the past gubernatorial races in my state. I can't count the times I heard, "I wish they would have given Gatewood a shot" (an independent candidate extraordinaire), or "I voted for Gatewood". It seems that had these folks actually cast those votes, the outcome may have been quite different. If everyone who said "I'd vote for so and so, but they don't stand a chance" would just vote for so and so.....what would happen?