Friday, September 12, 2008

Not Voting For Obama, Voting Against McCain

Megan McArdle with some compelling reasons why she is not voting for McCain:
I think the Republican Party is moribund. Its long tenure has made it corrupt, and depleted its stock of ideas. It has gotten too cosy with the bureaucracy and the lobbyists, and lost touch with its first principles. I do not think that this is some feature of conservatism--indeed, it reminds me quite a bit of the House under Tip O'Neil. But I think the party needs a time out to think about things.

I say this with the full realization that this will give the Democrats scope to enact policies I will hate. But I think that this is a small price to pay for a Republican party I might one day be able to support again.

At the same time, I am more in accord with most of McCain's stated domestic policy positions than Obama's. I am not voting for him for the reasons stated above, and also because excursions like McCain-Feingold give me little reason to believe that he can be trusted to abide within the constricting confines of small government conservatism. So when I talk policy, I'm going to end up criticizing Obama more than McCain. I'm not voting for Obama. I'm voting against McCain.
Read about some of my own concerns about John McCain here and here.

1 comment:

l4k said...

This line of reasoning is beyond me. Once one accepts the fact that their one vote will not determine the outcome of a presidential election and if one truly doesn't like either candidate, then voting for either of the two main party candidates is stupid.

If a person were to vote for the third party candidate that best reflects their political views, their one vote would be more powerful. It would let the two parties know that you don't like the nonsense they have been selling. And, furthermore, it would be registering a vote for a political philosophy and not just a personality.