Friday Bottom 3: Reasons not to Vote

Last week, I listed what I believed were the 3 worst reasons to vote, and this week I will discuss the other side. These are my three worst reasons to decide not to vote.

#3 Both candidates are the same so it does not matter which one I vote for. What? Have you been paying attention? While one candidate is a very smooth talker, has the swagger, and definitely carries himself with a certain aire, and the other candidate is physically hampered by war injuries that were not properly treated, does not have the silver tongue, and is does not carry the most inspiring aura, that is not the difference I am talking about. I am talking about one candidate proposing the type of change that takes from one man who has earned his pay, to give to the man who has not earned, stands for the right to abort at any stage of pregnancy using any medical procedure available for any reason, believes minors should be able to abort their unborn without the consent of their parents, and that the American tax payer should pick up the tab for those abortions while the other candidate opposes abortion in all cases with the exception of the life of the mother being in jeopardy, and opposes the redistribution of earned income from the people who earn to those who do not. These are major differences worthy of one casting a vote.

#2 My one vote doesn’t matter. Look at the millions of votes cast. What difference can I make? Hey, back in 2000, that theory failed. The presidential race came down to a very slim margin and after numerous recounts, it took the US Supreme Court to tell the Democrat lawyers in FL that they could not ignore their own state constitution and just continue recounting until they got the result they wanted. It was that close. While there were thousands of fraudulent votes from felons that were believed to go for Gore that year, there were also quite a few confused voters in Palm Beach County who may have cast a few thousand votes for Pat Buchanan on the infamous “butterfly ballot”. That’s a different story for a different day. The point is that if not for a few hundred people who may have decided to vote last minute, the election results could have been different.

#1 The candidate I support is too far behind. The election is over. Why bother? Well, no candidate is technically “behind” or “ahead”. The polls that we hear about are opinion surveys that use complex formulas including weighting political affiliations, economic groups, age and race demographics, likely vs registered vs general population groups, and regional weighting. No major poll releases their exact formula for deciding who they call to survey or how they determine their prediction of how the vote totals will fall. That is the reason why it is said by the experts that you can make a poll say whatever you want. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to decide just because you are discouraged by the polls. As you can see over the past few days, the polls have tightened up. As I have stated before, I am very distrusting of our mainstream media. Who holds them responsible? If they will not cover this election fairly, what would preclude them from skewing the polls to discourage votes on the side they oppose? The fact is that there is only one poll that matters, and that is the vote that is cast on election day (except the ones who vote absentee and early).

Where did we get off track, America?

Today, I don’t think I will produce a silly quotation from Jack Handey. In light of super liberal Barack Obama’s big win in NC which has most pundits believing that the race is over in the Democrat party, and also in light of John McCain being a somewhat liberal Republican senator with the nomination sealed, I decided to drop a quote on you from one of our founding fathers.

Thomas Jefferson said,”That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.”

It seems to me that not only do our people not discipline themselves, we also do not have a government that governs least. Where did we lose the way? FDR? LBJ? We hand out money either in cash assistance or various programs like Head Start, AFDC, food stamps, medicaid, medicare, Social Security, and soon-to-be Universal Healthcare to almost anyone who applies. We throw the guilt trip on anyone who is in opposition to wasteful spending in the form of these socialist redistributions of wealth. Their proponents accuse opponents of hating the poor and harming the children. If you oppose high taxes, you are accused of favoring the rich. The class warfare has begun!

Neither McCain nor Obama will govern in accordance with the above quote. We can count on more taxes, more spending, more programs, more government noses in our business, and there is not a lot we can do about it. Unfortunately, I’ve been left with the reality that I am voting for the one who will do the lesser amount of damage to the nation, rather than the one who will get this mess turned around.