Monday, November 18, 2002 :::
leaving the Libertarian Party as a change in tactics rather than ideology; John J. Miller writes in That Liberal Rag about the Libertarian Party and its voters "taking votes" from the Republicans. I'm not thrilled by this wording.When I was an undergraduate at the U of C (er, Chicago), there was an election for student government president in which there were three principle competitors, say A, B, and C. I figured it was a vote between A and B; I felt either A or C would be fine, but that B had to be stopped At Any Cost. I told a friend -- a supporter of B -- that I was voting for A. "A vote for A is a vote for C," he told me, apparently unaware that I was fine with that. Of course my vote did C no good; they won in spite of it.
In the adult world it's typically clearer which candidates have the best shot, and more reliably succesful gaming (i.e., voting for a candidate other than your first choice -- in Miller's case, the Republican) is possible. I imagine the people who vote Libertarian -- that includes me sometimes, depending on the major party candidates -- are aware of these considerations (though they may misestimate the impact they might have on the direction of their prefered major party), and it seems a bit curious to grumble about them more than about those who voted for the winning candidate.
::: posted by dWj at 12:26 PM
