Friday, July 15, 2016

This Year’s Election Choice: 3rd Party or Best Platform?

Former New Jersey Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman penned a NJ Star-Ledger guest column calling for a vote for a 3rd party candidate in this year’s presidential election. Whitman had previously announced that she would not support Donald Trump, and might even consider voting for Hillary Clinton. Now, she says in light of the e-mail scandals,


The problem with Hillary Clinton's deceptions and Donald Trump's disregard for the truth or the Constitution is that it leaves the American voter with unacceptable choices.


I left these comments:


True. The choice stinks. But a 3rd party candidate is not the only viable alternative. There is another way to look at this year’s election; as a choice between major party platforms.


The Democrats have lurched more heavily toward statism and nihilism as ever before. If their platform recommendations are adopted, they will call for a war on reliable energy, in the form of going 50% “green” energy  within 10 years and elimination of fossil fuels by 2050; a war on individual diversity and achievement, in the form of an anti-economic inequality crusade; and a war on free speech and intellectual freedom, in the form of a call for blatantly fascist Justice Department investigations and criminal prosecutions of dissenters from the Left’s climate catastrophism dogma under cover of “fraud.” The Democrats stand clearly with tyranny and regression.


If the Republicans counter with an equally radical pro-liberty platform, a vote for Trump, distasteful as that may be, would be immensely better than allowing Hillary to backdoor into the White House on the back of an electorally split political Right. If he surrounds himself with appointments loyal to the GOP platform, a Trump presidency could not only be less bad than expected but progressive.


If the Democrat Party were still led by “Old Left” liberals like Scoop Jackson, JFK, Hubert Humphrey, Patrick Moynahan, and Joe Lieberman, a 3rd party protest vote would be a viable alternative, because a Democrat victory wouldn’t be so bad. But the modern Democrats have become dominated by neo-communist “New Left” enemies of capitalism, technological progress, and the Declaration of Independence.


I’ve toyed with the idea of voting for a 3rd party candidate such as the Libertarian Party ticket, or simply abstaining from voting for a presidential candidate. But the 2016 Democrats are just too horrendously dangerous to stomach. Once the conventions are over, I’ll study the party platforms and vote accordingly. From what I’m reading, the Democrats will end up with a thoroughly authoritarian egalitarian, environmentalist, and anti-First Amendment platform. With the Democrats adopting such an undisguised fascist identity, I may well find it unthinkable—pending a convincing GOP platform alternative—not to vote Republican, even with Donald Trump at the head of the ticket.


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2 comments:

Steve D said...

'I may well find it unthinkable—pending a convincing GOP platform alternative—not to vote Republican, even with Donald Trump at the head of the ticket.'

You could always vote Libertarian for president and Republican down ticket. In any event I don't think it matters who you vote for. Fortunately or unfortunately, Donald Trump has about as much chance to become president as I have...which is none. (Look at the polls of likely voters rather than overall).

principled perspectives said...

I view elections as being about more than my one vote. It's also about speaking up for my values and trying to sway other voters to my side. So, we can have electoral influence beyond just our one vote. I agree that Hillary is the likely winner. But for me this election's coming down to keeping the Dems out of power at all costs. While Johnson/Weld is a better option ideologically, Trump/Pence has a better shot at winning.