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Whose Wasted Vote?
by James Glaser October 23, 2012 
I have both Romney and Obama people telling me that if I vote Third Party, I am wasting my vote, or depending which side they are on, my vote is a de facto vote for Romney or Obama. Oh really? My take is that no matter who wins, my Third Party vote will help which ever Third Party I pick to be stronger in the next election, and hopefully they can garner enough votes to be included in the 2016 presidential debate schedule. That my friends is what will open up our election to truly new ideas. Anyway, following the logic of those who oppose my Third Party vote, if Obama wins, then a vote for Romney was a wasted vote, and if Romney wins, then those votes for Obama were wasted votes. Consider this: Romney-backers are sure that Barack Obama is evil. Obama-backers are sure that Mitt Romney is evil. So a vote for either is a vote believed by millions of Americans as a vote for evil. Thus, knowing that voting for either major party candidate would be casting a vote for evil, my Third party vote will allow me to not suffer with the guilt of picking the "lessor of two evils," Over the past few months I have noticed a rising level of hate between Democrats and Republicans on my Face Book page. I believe I have been able to keep above the fray, because I post articles about both Romney and Obama. I really don't think Obama backers even read the posts I put up that seem negative about their candidate, and if the title doesn't clue them in, I bet they stop reading as soon as the see something they don't like. I'm sure the same can be said for Republicans backing Romney. That is why we have Fox News and MSNBC. Fox makes Republicans feel good and MSNBC pacifies Democrats in the same way. Our population reflects the way politicians now act in Washington. No one should wonder why nothing seems to be getting done, nor should they expect change any time soon. With millions and millions of Americans now employed by the Defense Industry making weapons and equipment that we use in our wars, what chance do you think we have to find a peaceful solution to any foreign policy problem? Peace means job loss. If we are not shooting bullets or dropping bombs, or firing off artillery rounds, soon the stock piles will get so huge that orders for new munitions will come to a halt, and people will start to be laid off. We actually have not had real peace since before WWII, and we don't know how to prosper with a peace time economy. For the last decade we have had the dubious honor of being the largest seller of weapons to the Third World. In fact, we sell more arms than the rest of the world combined. We truly have become the Merchants of Death. Wars and arm sales are what keep our economy going, but there is a flaw in our system. We borrow the money we need to keep the profits flowing to the Defense Industry, and we now have a $16 trillion dollar debt. That debt keeps going up with our continued wars, but there is an end in sight. Bankruptcy. Wanda and I went to Valdosta, Georgia Sunday afternoon shopping. We saw several people begging or you might call it panhandling at busy intersections. This was something new for our trips to Valdosta. We always have seen this in big cities like Tallahassee or Jacksonville, but it has now come to rural America. The people we saw did not look like the homeless we expect to see doing this. These people looked like they could be our neighbors. Times have been bad for many Americans for four years now, and many people have reached the end of any hope of making it back to where they were at one time, and they are forced to beg for help. It is a sad time in America. |
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