Don't throw away your vote by going with McCain or Obama

I have many Republican friends who are disgusted that I'm voting third party this election year. They believe stopping Barack Obama from becoming president outweighs all else. Meanwhile, I have many Democrat friends who are equally disgusted; for them, seeing John McCain defeated is more important than who wins. They are all wasting their votes.

Imagine a reckless teenager who constantly runs up his parents' credit cards, smashes the family car every Friday night, is failing in school, and has serious drinking and drug problems. Now imagine that no matter how reckless and dangerous that teenager became, his parents believed his behavior was worth tolerating simply because he was "their" kid. No reasonable person would consider this good parenting.

And yet this is exactly how otherwise reasonable people vote.

No matter how bad the Republican or Democrat nominee for president is, the party faithful support their own without fail. The message to politicians? They may lie, ignore their party's platform, and betray every supposed principle, but they will never be held accountable by most voters. Like the reckless teenager, there is simply no reason for them to stop their irresponsible behavior.

Conservatives had little good to say about John McCain before he became the GOP nominee, but now they are prepared to vote for a pro-amnesty, liberal Republican, who recently was not only complicit in passing the greatest wealth distribution package in American history, but who also counts liberals Ted Kennedy, Joe Lieberman, and Russ Feingold amongst his greatest political allies. Is it really worth rewarding such a Republican in order to stop Obama?

It has been said that if you don't vote, you can't complain. If you always vote for the status quo, you really have no business complaining about it. And if politics-as-usual is something you're entirely comfortable with, then by all means vote for Obama or McCain.

However, I know very few people who admit to being comfortable with the status quo. And even fewer willing to do anything about it.