It doesn’t really matter who I vote for in the upcoming election, Obama will win in my state and he’ll get all the electoral seats. That said though, I’m really disgusted with all the candidates running for President this time around and don’t want to give any of them my vote because I don’t want any of them in the White House.
Usually, and it’s been this way for almost 30 years of voting, I will vote for the lesser of the two evils. I cannot say there has been a candidate that I could support in all the time I’ve been voting. I vote for the one I think can do the least damage or I vote to keep someone particularly egregious out of office. That’s what happened in the 2008 election when I voted for Obama, not because I like Obama, but because I disliked him less than the thought of having Sarah Palin anywhere near the Oval Office. He became the default vote because I couldn’t stomach the idea of McCain and his brainless minion in power.
But this time around, I can’t stand the idea of either Obama or Romney getting into office. I hate them both with an unbridled passion. About a week ago, the local Republican party, of which I am a member, mostly by default, called me and asked which candidate I supported. I told them the truth. I told them both candidates sucked and I could not support either of them. The guy on the other end of the phone just hung up on me.
And don’t talk to me about a third party candidate. No matter how much Obama and Romney suck, the platforms of the third parties suck worse and, from a practicality standpoint, none of them have a shot in hell of actually getting elected. As I said, I don’t support anyone running from any party, period. But hey, I took a look at some of the third parties and wow, are there a lot of them! Let’s look at a couple of them for shits and giggles.
AMERICA’S PARTY / AMERICAN INDEPENDENT PARTY – Originally founded by Alan Keyes in 2008, they want to repeal income taxes, although they have no clue what to do to make money for the government. They’re also fundamentalist right wing on most social issues, including marriage and abortion. Pass.
AMERICAN THIRD POSITION PARTY – It’s the nutty white supremacist party, of course, they only care about representing white people. Strongly anti-interventionalist, anti-immigration and, let’s be honest, anti-anyone-but-whites, they’re laughable in the extreme. Pass.
CONSTITUTION PARTY – Founded in 1992, it’s essentially a wingnut Christian party that looked at the modern-day Republicans and said “wow, they’re not extreme enough!” Similar in platform to the American Independent Party, just more extreme. Pass.
GREEN PARTY – Crazy tree huggers, these are the people who appeal to some segments of the atheist community due to their focus on social justice. Fuck ‘em all. Pave the Earth. Pass.
JUSTICE PARTY – A newcomer to the mix, having been formed in 2011, it’s a moderate-liberal party that advocates economic justice, green jobs and political responsibility. Seems like a lot of ideas, no real cohesive platform. Pass.
LIBERTARIAN PARTY – While there is some good to be had in libertarian thought, it tends to encompass far too much real estate. Lots of libertarians are anarchists, wanting no, or virtually no government at all. They tend to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but to be honest, I think they go to extremes in both regards. There are things they want to eliminate that I simply can never agree with, hence I will never vote Libertarian. Pass.
OBJECTIVIST PARTY – The party is based on the ideas of Ayn Rand, which makes it a bunch of wingnut kooks right off the bat. There’s an saying that says “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. “ Pass.
PARTY OF SOCIALISM AND LIBERATION – Love these people, the two candidates they are running are too young to Constitutionally accept office even if they were elected. Yeah, that inspires a lot of confidence. As if it’s any surprise, this is a communist party, so clearly, since such a concept only appeals to the immature, kids running for office is to be expected. Pass.
PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY – Far left crazy party, purely socialist and enviro-nutty. I mean seriously, their candidates are Roseann Barr and Cindy Sheehan. Nuff said. Pass.
PROHIBITION PARTY – Vehemently against alcohol and tobacco, this party has existed for over 100 years and has basically dwindled into obscurity, getting only 643 votes for it’s 2008 Presidential candidate. In fact, it has only had one elected official in the whole of the 20th century, a tax assessor in Pennsylvania. It’s just embarassing. Pass.
REFORM PARTY USA – Formed in 1995 by Ross Perot, this party came to notoriety during Perot’s failed 1996 Presidential run. The party is decidedly fiscally conservative and has no social stand whatsoever, preferring to allow individual members to decide. However, you really can’t have a party with no social policies, which leads to the Reform Party USA being a complete bust. Pass.
SOCIALIST PARTY USA (SP-USA) / LIBERTY UNION PARTY – More crazy socialists, there seem to be a lot of parties that lean in this direction. Screw ‘em all. Pass.
SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY – Yet another one. Their platform: “The Socialist Equality Party is a political party of and for the working class. The SEP seeks not to reform capitalism, but to create a socialist, democratic and egalitarian society through the establishment of a workers’ government and the revolutionary transformation of world economy. We seek to unify workers in the United States and internationally in the common struggle for socialism—that is, for equality and the rational and democratic utilization of the wealth of the planet.” Pass.
SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY – Likewise here, the VP candidate cannot legally serve even if elected. This is nothing new, the party has routinely run candidates which cannot legally hold office. If you know that, why run these candidates? If the party is that stupid, they don’t deserve any votes. Pass.
Is it any wonder this country is going to hell in a handbasket if these are the only idiots who want to run the country?
