#NeverTrump Republicans, Start Playing Chess: Sacrifice Your Vote
You’re frustrated — probably already tuned-out from the political entertainment that is CNN and Fox News. You know voting is your patriotic duty and that people have fought to preserve our right of self-determination. But that doesn’t stop you from rolling your eyes and changing the channel when election news comes on.
The Pieces Are Set
You’re probably someone as dismayed as I am by the current offerings from our two political parties.
As for Hillary Clinton, you and most Americans are #NotWithHer. Her spine is made of Jell-O and her policy positions are up for the highest bidder. She has not put forth any compelling message or proposal to reinvigorate the economy or reduce the national debt. Her 52% unfavorability rating is a reflection of her more-of-the-same, status-quo ideas.
Donald Trump will Make America Less Great, Again. He’s garnering a staggering 61% unfavorability rating at the moment. One can applaud his no-holds-barred attack on the Washington political elite. For too long we’ve remained beholden to special interests. If only he didn’t obfuscate his fundamental message with stupefying statements about Mexican immigrants-gone-wild, trade warmongering, premeditated war crimes, traditional financial disclosures, female genitalia, distortions of his past record, and attacks on the other — prejudiced rhetoric aimed at all directions to embolden the so-called Silent Majority.
Playing for the Endgame
So, Conservatives, I offer a way out of the conundrum of the two-party racket. Vote Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico and the nominee for the Libertarian Party. Not because he can win but because he will lose. You’ll initiate the ripple of what will become a great shift in modern American politics — and it won’t have anything to do with Gary Johnson.
The Libertarian Party, the party of very limited government and individual liberty — socially liberal, fiscally conservative. Johnson is currently polling at 6% in head-to-head matchups with Clinton and Trump. In 2012, he garnered a measly 1%.
Being a Republican you like most of what he has to say, apart from the absentminded and seemingly-stoned articulations of common sense solutions to our country’s challenges.
But you say, “I’d rather not vote”; or richer, “that’s a wasted vote because he’ll lose.” You’re right in that he’ll surely lose, but wrong in that it’s a wasted vote — that’s the by-product. It’s a sacrificial vote, but one for the greater good.
Checkmate
First, you deny Trump the Presidency. Good outcome #1. Your vote, which normally would go to the GOP and the current nominee, would siphon off to Johnson and split the Republican ticket. Neither Trump nor Johnson would win. An eventually likely to occur anyways as Trump currently trails Hillary by 12 points. Conveniently, you also wouldn’t affect down-ticket Republicans.
Abstaining will mean you’re lazy, unaware or disinterested. A vote for Clinton or Trump will mean you support that candidate in spite of your true feelings. That’s the narrative political pundits will record in history.
Second, you force the GOP to recognize more seriously the policies from the Libertarian Party. Good outcome #2. Another Republican defeat will compel the GOP Leadership to broaden the party’s umbrella to include more Libertarian-leaning Republican voters. The higher we can increase Johnson’s lead the more we can wake up the Republican Party.
Within the GOP a vote for Johnson would also marginalize Trump’s base and “platform.” Increased focus on domestic fiscal and monetary matters — and not lower priority issues like abortion, gun control, and undocumented immigration — will bring our most pressing issues to the forefront. We’ll be able to address reforms in taxation, regulation, fiscal policy, drug policy, infrastructure spending, and easy-monetary policies. It will finally mold the GOP platform into a sensible counterweight to the DNC’s tax and regulate agenda.
Third, you help preserve our democracy. Good outcome #3. There is nothing inherently wrong with a two-party system. However, if that system becomes so entrenched that the powers that be leverage it to gain ever-increasing favor, what may seem like a vote for red or blue is really a vote for the same purple. Third party or independent challengers that can gain large swaths of voters shift the center of that respective political party. Just look what Bernie did to the DNC’s Platform in this election cycle. Competition in politics, like our economy, is generally healthy for the system.
Affirmative votes of no-confidence, like voting for a third party candidate, are common in other countries. Maybe it’s time we renewed this rebellious democratic tradition to regain our dignity. A dignity slowly lost from the apathy of being forced to play their game by their rules.
Let’s play chess while they play checkers. Sacrifice your vote. Vote Gary Johnson November 8th.
